Survivor story: Helen McCain

Helen McCain of Bloomfield, Missouri, was diagnosed with breast cancer 18 years ago. She was encouraged to go in for a mammogram by her family doctor.

"We had a doctor down in Arkansas, and when I went in, he said that I felt 'electric' when he touched me, and he told me that I needed to get a mammogram," McCain says.

Her mammogram showed she had cancer in both breasts and that she would need to have a double mastectomy.

"I couldn't have radiation because it would have burned the top of my heart," she says.

McCain got along well after her surgery and said she had no problems after the procedure.

Then, five years ago, she was in for a routine chest X-ray, and she told her doctor about the pain between her knee and her thigh.

"I complained to my doctor that I was hurting there, and at first, he thought is was arthritis," says McCain. "But they looked further and saw things didn't look right. The tests showed I had bone cancer."

McCain learned the bone cancer actually came from the breast cancer she'd had several years earlier. The doctor found several tumors throughout her body.

This time, she was prescribed chemotherapy in pill form.

"[The pills] shrank the tumors and I didn't have a lot of the side effects that some people have with chemotherapy," says McCain. "Sometimes, I hardly knew I was taking the pills."

She says the support of her family and her doctors helped her get through the ordeal.

"I had good help from my husband, Cellis. And, my son, John, and daughter-in-law, Cinda, moved here from Washington state to help me," says McCain. "Also, my oncologist, Dr. Arahna, was very upbeat. She told me that if I was hurting, to call her. Or, if I was coughing or running a temperature, to call her office. She made herself very accessible to me."

McCain's advice to other women dealing with cancer is simple.

"Do what your doctors says, and if you've had breast cancer and you are hurting bad somewhere else, get it checked out," she says.

McCain and her husband have been married for 65 years. In addition to their son, they have a daughter, Candis Heck, who lives with them.

"Candis has progressive multiple sclerosis and is an invalid at this point," McCain says.

Heck, who is 63, was able to graduate from college, become a teacher and is a mother of two.

"She was diagnosed with MS at 29," says McCain. "She's a lovely lady."