Edna Campbell is passionate about life. The 5’8 former guard and star player for the Sacramento Monarchs womens’ basketball team has a mission to share her story in order to inspire and hearten other women. She has faced and overcome the life-and-death challenge of breast cancer. She points out that breast cancer will never go completely away, so women need to get accustomed to guarding against it. Campbell keynoted the recent Pink Ribbon Getaway at East Texas Medical Center’s pavilion.
She tells survivors there are also other health threats to be faced. Apart from breast cancer it can be heart trouble or diabetes. There are precautions that insure against all of them.
“Our best defense is to eat well, reduce stress, exercise regularly, get enough rest and build good relationships with family and friends,” she said.
Still, it is breast cancer that gets the lion’s share of her attention.
“Breast cancer does not discriminate. It does not know if you have a risk factor or not,” she said. “I was only thirty-two when I was diagnosed with breast cancer, and no one on either side of my family had [ever] had breast cancer. I had no risk factors whatsoever,” she said. “I was in the best shape of my life, and never thought this would happen to me.”
Campbell played for European teams, and was in Italy playing when a teammate elbowed her. Despite her applying ice to the injury, the pain would not stop.
“I have played with a broken nose, broken finger and other injuries, but this pain in my breast would not go away,” she said. “I had that nagging feeling that something was wrong, and told the Italian coach that I was going home.”
She made one point very clear to her audience.
“If you feel it and cannot explain it, go to the doctor acomplia rimonabant without prescription immediately,” she said. “If you are not satisfied, get two other opinions. It is your body and your life at stake.”
A doctor confirmed she had breast cancer.
“I was shocked and numb, to say the least,” she said. “This was a situation that had me stomped.”
Yet, her faith, career and experiences gave her a beautiful life to fight for.
Campbell explained how her basketball career helped her overcome her cancer. In sports there is always a game plan to find out all there is to know about opponents so that their strengths can be defeated en route to victory. With the help of her family, friends, teammates and doctors she devised a winning game plan. As with any good game plan well executed–it won for her.
Amazingly, she continued to live a normal life throughout her treatment. She played basketball when she could, and rested when she needed it. She outlined for her listeners the various stages of her treatment so that they could identify with it.
“You must be conscious of your health at all times,” she said. “Always prepare yourself for your best life every day. There are bad days for everybody with or without breast cancer, but be prepared to live your best life every day.”
The ETMC Pink Ribbon Getaway started at 7:30 a.m. with registration and breakfast. The hospital provided a full day of useful workshops for survivors, their families and friends. There were cosmetics and skin care for survivors, exercise and nutrition counseling, door prizes, physician panel, special recognitions, lunch, pin-a-sister, and finally everyone got a small rose to plant in remembrance of the day.
Campbell’s college athletic career began at the University of Maryland, but she achieved her most notable success with the University of Texas women’s team where, as a Lady Longhorn, she was named the Southwest Conference’s Newcomer of the Year for 1990. She graduated in 1991 after a college career that saw her team compile a record of 48-14. The Phoenix Mercury made her the 10th overall pick in the Women’s National Basketball Association’s (WNBA) 1999 draft. When she was left unprotected in the following season’s expansion draft she was taken by the Seattle Storm. Although she was a standout, her new team finished in the cellar with a 6-26 record.
After the Storm drafted superstar Lauren Jackson a year later, Campbell was traded to the Sacramento Monarchs, where she spent the next four seasons. In the second of those years she received her breast cancer diagnosis. Following treatment she was welcomed back by the fans of her two most recent teams in the Monarchs’ final game for the 2002 season. It was against Seattle.
Campbell continued to play in spite of the cancer, becoming an inspiring symbol to many survivors. She became the WNBA’s national spokesman in its anti-cancer efforts with the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, receiving the Kim Perrot Sportsmanship Award for 2003. After playing as a free agent for the San Antonio Silver Stars in 2005, she announced her retirement from the WNBA on February 28, 2006.
During the 2006 WNBA season, its ninth, fans nominated Campbell’s victory over breast cancer as “most inspirational and one of the top four WNBA Decade Anniversary moments”. Shortly after her retirement the Silver Spurs hired her as a television commentator for the 2006 season. She now continues to inspire women with the story of her life during and after breast cancer.
