Cancer Survivors Celebrate Victory

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KGAN/KFXA) -- June 3rd is "National Cancer Survivor's Day".? Celebrations across the country mark the accomplishments of those who defeated cancer.

It is not unusual to hear bells ringing in Mercy's Hall-Perrine Cancer Center, a sound celebrating those who have endured a lot.

"I'm a typical, average, 45-year-old female," Julie Potter says.

Julie doesn't think she's anything special, and at first glance, you would not know she had cancer.

"Cancer hit me hard," she says.

Julie battled breast cancer for 8 months, diagnosed just this past September.

"Within two weeks of my diagnosis, I had a double mastectomy," she says.

All the while, she kept a close eye on a bell in the center. The bells are symbolic of survival. Cancer patients get to ring that bell on their last day of treatment.

Julie was just one of dozens of cancer survivors celebrating victory at the cancer center.

"Our treatments are getting better and are getting to be more targeted medicine, so that it's individualized for each patient. Their survival rate is higher. They live longer," says Dee Eadie, Hall-Perrine Cancer Center executive director.

Those advancements are giving hope, where hope was once lost.

"Every day is a celebration. Every day is a new day forward in the life of a cancer patient, and every day is a new day of survivorship," Eadie says.

The bell's sound means a new day, one that patients like Julie won't ever take for granted.

"Cancer can be beaten," she says, "I am proof of that."

There are nearly 12 million cancer survivors nationwide. Experts say it's a growing survival rate due to personalized medications.Cancer Survivors Celebrate Victory

Sunday, June 3 2012, 11:20 PM CDT

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