‘I’m lucky. I’m alive. I get to be here’
She recalls being told it was not common for women her age to develop cancer. Twenty-two years later, Shauna Swanepoel wants to do whatever she can to help any person, regardless of their age, receive that diagnosis.
Now 47, Swanepoel will be one of 80 cancer survivors invited to participate in the American Cancer Society Le Sueur County Relay for Life fundraiser tomorrow evening, Friday, July 11, at the Le Sueur County Fairgrounds in Le Center. Events associated with the relay begin at 5 p.m. The opening ceremony is slated for 6 p.m. A luminaria ceremony to honor those dealing with cancer, honoring those lost to the disease and to congratulate survivors is set for after a raffle drawing, around 8:45 p.m. Organizers of the relay are confident the $35,000 fundraising goal will be topped thanks to an increase in the number of teams participating in the event, said Julie Harmon of New Prague, one of the co-chairpersons of the annual ACS Le Sueur County Relay along with Amy Sellner and a cancer survivor herself since 2019.
“We have so many businesses and so many people who have been very generous,” Harmon said.
Swanepoel was 26 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. After a lumpectomy, she ultimately decided to have a double-mastectomy. After meeting with an oncologist at Abbott Northwestern in Minneapolis, she decided on the double-mastectomy to avoid reoccurrence. She endured chemotherapy and radiation before reconstruction. Although the cancer never...
To see more on this story pick up the July 10,, 2025 print editions of The New Prague Times, Moontgomery Messenger or LifeEnterprise paper.
New Prague survivor looking forward to Relay for Life
