Built To Fight
Although just four feet ten inches, Sandy Sargent makes up with heart what she lacks in height. As the primary caregiver of her family – which includes her husband, who has Alzheimer’s, and her daughter and son, who both battled cancer - Sandy had always been the rock in the household.
When Sandy was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer with tumors that had spread to her lymph nodes and brain, she was the one in need of support. Her doctor told her that she had six to nine months to live. Yet she handled the diagnosis and fight of her life with her usual fortitude.
“When I was diagnosed with cancer, I didn’t cry, I didn’t scream, I said okay give me a plan,” Sandy says.
Initially, her oncologist started Sandy on radiation every day and chemotherapy once a week, though the regimen caused some damage to her brain tissue.
Despite the toll radiation and chemotherapy took on her body, Sandy never complained.
Every morning she would remind herself: “Attitude is a choice. You’re still here. One foot in front of the other.”
In 2015, Sandy discovered that a new immunotherapy had just been approved. After speaking with her oncologist, Sandy was treated with Opdivo and has been undergoing treatments bi-monthly ever since.
“I visualize that Opdivo is like one of those comic book heroes, standing at the door to my brain knocking the cancer cells out,” says Sandy.
Three years later, Sandy’s medical tests do not reveal any tumors. Despite a bit of swelling around her brain, Sandy no longer has fevers or seizures.
“I fight so that cancer doesn’t define me,” says Sandy. “I don’t want to be known as a cancer victim, but cancer survivor is a different story.”
Sandy keeps adding to her bucket list and continuously checks off new adventures that she’s been able to experience. Since her cancer diagnosis and treatment, she’s gone skydiving and went river rafting to see bald eagles.
“God gave me a long list of things to stay alive for,” Sandy says. “I like to say I have my own trinity: my god, my prayer and my Opdivo.”
Climbing Mt. Fuji was just one in a series of adventures for Sandy that also included sky diving and river rafting.