ESPN RISE

Amy Brechon, a 17-year-old senior and a volleyball and soccer player at Belvidere (Ill.) North High, recently got the go-ahead from her doctors to decrease her twice-yearly checkups -- which make sure her breast cancer has not returned -- to just once per year.

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Courtesy Mike Brechon

Amy Brechon received the Section 4 Spirit of Sport Award earlier this year.

"They think I'm in the clear," Brechon says.

It is hard not to ponder the existence of fate or guardian angels when you consider Brechon's case. Diagnosed with a rare type of malignant tumor -- phyllodes accounts for less than 1 percent of all breast tumors, and only half of those are malignant -- at 13 (an age just as unlikely for breast cancer), Brechon needed two surgeries to win her battle with cancer: one to remove the tumor and another to clear out the surrounding area.

No radiation, no chemotherapy, no scars -- the latter no small consideration for an adolescent girl. She missed a couple of weeks of eighth-grade basketball after the first surgery. That's it.

And perhaps most miraculous is when Brechon discovered the lump, on a family vacation, one of her mother's sisters was engaged to a cancer researcher, who has this full title: Professor of Pathology, Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics; Associate Cancer Center Director for Translational Science; Director, Breast Cancer Preclinical Research for the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center at Loyola University Medical Center.

Dr. Lucio Miele guided Amy and her family through the process, assuring everyone with knowledge -- and knowledge and understanding, he says, "makes you feel more empowered."

Miele, who translates discoveries in the laboratory to results for patients and tries to discover new cancer drugs, says none of the luck was more important than Brechon's maturity.

"She has a very strong character," Miele says. "She was amazingly composed. She was very determined, very serious. She was self-possessed as a much, much older woman. Very much a participant."

Brechon says that after the initial shock, she didn't cry again until … the outlook grew more and more positive. It's hard for her to explain, but sometimes she can't talk about her ordeal now without choking up. She's been asked to speak to Girls Scouts -- she's a lifetime member now -- and to appear at local cancer charities' events as an honorary survivor. When she gives a speech, her mother Kathy is close by, in case Amy needs a hug and an encouraging word.

"She comes around," Kathy says. "She can always finish."

That's because telling others, especially adolescent girls, about early diagnosis, about moving past embarrassment, about self-testing, is critical to Brechon. She's happy, in a way, that her tumor was rare, so that it was more valuable for researchers, and she's happy that she can help raise awareness.

"There is a message -- you're never too young, early detection is the key," Brechon says. "Don't be embarrassed to speak up."

Miele, now officially Brechon's uncle, has helped with her post-recovery life as well. Her experience led her to choose a major in nursing, and Marquette University accepted the National Honor Society member this spring.

"[Miele] wrote a beautiful letter to Marquette," Kathy says. "There will always be a bond."

Because of the history of cancer in the family, Brechon's doctors got Kathy to be vigilant as well. She and Amy now get their checkups together.

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Courtesy Mike Brechon

Brechon is planning to study nursing at Marquette.

"Most moms and daughters go shopping for gowns together," Kathy says.

On their first dual checkup, Amy joked with her mom, "Aw Mom, you're my little first-timer."

Brechon knows that even if the prognosis is bright -- after five years the likelihood of recurrence is "very small," says Miele -- she can't help but feel differently than someone who had never had a malignant tumor.

"I wish she didn't have to live that way, but she might, and that's OK," Kathy says. "We all should be very aware."

Miele says that Brechon's athletic lifestyle was a factor in the outcome. He stresses that physical activity -- and not just walking around, but vigorous -- can decrease the likelihood of breast cancer. Because Brechon's type of breast cancer is so uncommon, Miele can't say whether that applies to her type, but in general, activity decreases the chance of obesity, which is a documented correlative to breast and colon cancer, in particular.

Brechon is a sweeper in her final season of soccer at Belvidere North. The National Federation of High Schools named her the winner of the Section 4 Spirit of Sport Award, an accolade presented to the top candidate in five Midwest states (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa), and she received the award in an on-court ceremony at the IHSA's boys' basketball championships. The award recognizes those "who exemplify the ideals of the positive spirit of sport that represent the core mission of education-based athletics," according to an IHSA press release. Those eligible for the award include student-athletes, coaches, athletic administrators, administrators, trainers and other individuals associated with a school's athletic department.

She will continue to spread awareness, and next fall begin her studies to one day be able to do more than talk about her journey.

"Going through it made her realize how important it is to share; it's her way of being thankful for how well things went," Miele says. "The experience made her want to be a caretaker."

Joe Bush is a freelance writer in Illinois.