CHARLO - “You have cancer” is something no one wants to hear told to themselves or to a loved one.
Sadly, it’s something frequently said to one family in the Mission Valley.
Shayna Cullinan grew up in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho where she remembers playing by the water and camping with her family.
But during those early years, she was diagnosed with cancer.
“The first time I was a month old. I had bilateral retinal blastoma. I had that eye cancer — childhood eye cancer — until I was four I believe," Cullinan recalled.
Cancer continued to loom over Cullinan's life as she got older and in her mid-twenties, she was diagnosed for the second time.
“That was just a ten-centimeter mass which is pretty big — think like baby’s head size — in my abdomen that was crushing all of my organs over to the right side,” Cullinan explained.
The cancerous mass was found almost a year after she started to feel pain.
Cullinan was told by a specialist that doctors could have actually removed the cancer before it got so huge.
“He told me, had they actually done your CT scan [earlier] this could have been a simple surgery, you know, six, eight months ago rather than having to have three organs removed.”
Recently, Cullinan got married and was planning for her honeymoon, but the next chapter of her life with her new husband was interrupted by a third cancer diagnosis.
“We didn’t get to use our honeymoon fund for our honeymoon. We got to use it for doctor's appointments," Cullinan told MTN News. "We’re trying to piece together our life around this implosion and it’s definitely been strenuous.”
Additionally, Cullinan said that cancer runs in the family’s genes. Her younger brother had cancer and her mother has faced it five times.
“I was almost three years old when they removed my eye,” shared Cullinan's mother Heather Coville.
Coville said that having eye cancer alerted her to check for it when she had her kids.
Then, she had three sarcomas which led to the removal of her bladder and part of her arm.
Coville was then surprised with a breast cancer diagnosis which resulted in a double mastectomy.
“I think it’s always scary. But you just have to choose to deal with it in a positive manner," Coville expressed.
Currently cancer free with no evidence of disease (NED), Coville shared that if she has to undergo cancer treatment again, she’ll do it for her family.
“I 110% live for my kids and my family," Coville said. "We are a very tight-knit group and I don’t know what I would do without my kids.”
Coville explained that she always texts her family 'I love you' at least twice a day.
She makes it a priority to tell each family member how much she appreciates them.
Both mom and daughter love to help support others.
After this third bout with cancer, Cullinan is looking forward to getting back to helping people through Lake County Community Support and through her job as a tax professional.
“I love people. I love to help people,” Cullinan said with a smile.
Coville wants better days, "Healthier days, getting to go on them family vacations and spend time with my kids."
To help Shayna Cullinan visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/recent-bride-shayna-hunt-has-leiomyosarcoma?utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook
