25 years of making a difference, let’s continue to transform lives for 25 more. DONATE

Hanna’s Story

Hanna's Story

We recently had the pleasure of speaking with Hanna Lengkeek, a stage III rectal cancer survivor. She was inspired to share her story with the Colorectal Cancer Canada community after hearing CTV news anchor Jocelyn Laidlaw speak about her own colorectal cancer diagnosis. Hanna currently lives in Chilliwack, BC with her husband Art and is actively involved in various volunteer activities in her community.

Seeing Jocelyn’s story in the news was a confirmation for Hanna “that it is important to talk to others about the importance of getting checked early (for colorectal cancer). Anytime there is a concern, don’t wait and see (…) I’m always looking for ways, other than being a wife and mother, to be helpful in the community.  I feel it’s very important to share my story as well as the importance of early detection.”

In 2004, Hanna came back from a trip to Ontario and felt unusually fatigued during her time away from home. “I was always so tired and it didn’t get better after the trip”. She also noticed some blood in her stool. She made an appointment with her doctor for the next day. During the visit, a student performed a rectal exam but was unable to feel anything abnormal. However, Hanna insisted that something was not right and he agreed to refer her for a non-urgent colonoscopy. She was 66 years old at the time.

Hanna continued to experience symptoms of colorectal cancer and became increasingly worried as she waited for her colonoscopy appointment. On the day of her coloscopy, a very large tumor was found in her rectum. “It was a long stretch of time between my first visit and the surgery where something could have been done”, she says. She was diagnosed with stage III rectal cancer and had her entire rectum removed, resulting in a permanent ostomy.

Hanna’s husband, Art, is an incredibly active 91-year old and to this day assists Hanna with the care of her ostomy. They have been married for 64 years and “he is an 18-year record holder for putting on my ostomy barrier once a week”. She talks fondly of her husband – “he has stuck by me through difficult times”. Having retired the year prior to Hanna’s cancer diagnosis, Art would drive over an hour into the city to bring Hanna to her treatments. He would always bring a book, and prepared love notes to cheer her up throughout her recovery.

After surgery, she received chemotherapy and radiotherapy for about 8 months. She feels “lucky, having had little side effects from chemotherapy” but found the radiotherapy to be more challenging to cope with.

On Thanksgiving Day 2005, she received a call from her oncology team: “Good news – we are done treatment”. Hanna has been cancer free ever since. “We really lived it up afterwards”, she says, and travelled a lot– Hawaii being a favorite with more than a dozen visits. She started journaling her travels after cancer and often looks back on these during more difficult days.

During her journey with cancer, she didn’t talk much about her diagnosis of rectal cancer with those around her. Years later, her friends look back on that period on time and never imagined she was dealing with cancer. “You looked so healthy, I never knew”, they say.

Before she was diagnosed, she didn’t know anyone who had this cancer. Neither her nor Art had ever participated in screening for colorectal cancer. Today, all of her seven children do screening every 5 years.

She always keeps a note close by to encourages her, that even in older age, you can always do something to help those around you : “Hanna, you are a very special person and thank you for all you do. You are there to help others always”.

 

Shane’s story

I was diagnosed in April 2022 with stage 3c rectal cancer at 34 with n [...]

READ MORE

Lisa’s story

If you’re here reading this, you probably already have your diagnosis. [...]

READ MORE

Rada’s Story

Awareness is the best medicine I remember many things from my battl [...]

READ MORE

Gaston’s Story

April 2023 My story goes back to the start of 2000 when I made a ra [...]

READ MORE

Eric’s Story

At 41 years old, I was relatively young, healthy, and enjoying time wi [...]

READ MORE

Coping with the impact of cancer on your mental health: Lisa Martin’s story

Lisa Martin is a stage II colorectal cancer survivor and a passionate advo [...]

READ MORE

Gordon Levine’s Story

Gordon was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer at the age of 48. After num [...]

READ MORE

Sam Megarry’s Story

Sam was diagnosed with colorectal cancer and Lynch syndrome when she was 2 [...]

READ MORE

Patient Story: Jordan

To donate: https://ccc.akaraisin.com/ui/bashforhope “Hope is all yo [...]

READ MORE

BLOOM WHERE YOU’RE PLANTED: LESSONS LEARNED FROM MY CANCER JOURNEY

In just one moment, your life can completely change. Last year, I h [...]

READ MORE

Becky Cassidy’s Story

“You have cancer.” To me, when it’s regarding my own health, those words s [...]

READ MORE

Claudia Pavao: early age onset colorectal cancer and Lynch syndrome survivor

Claudia was diagnosed with early age onset colorectal cancer and Lynch s [...]

READ MORE

Lisa Blobstein’s story

It has been 10 years since my husband Steve Lisiak lost his incredibly b [...]

READ MORE

Connie Pickett: Living with LARs

The whole cancer experience really challenged me - mentally, physically, [...]

READ MORE

Patient Story: Stephanie Budgell

Hi, I’m Stephanie Budgell, a colorectal cancer survivor. I was diag [...]

READ MORE

Patient Story: Bryna Dilman

My day started as it always did: I was woken up by my five year old da [...]

READ MORE

Patient Story: Haydn

Hi, my name is Haydn Bechthold and I’m a 22-year-old who is currently figh [...]

READ MORE

Gurvinder Garcha, Cancer Survivor

In the year 2000, my Mom’s world was turned upside down when she was diagn [...]

READ MORE

Anita’s Story: How Dress in Blue Day Began

In 2006 I started Dress in Blue Day at my children's k-8 school. I had bee [...]

READ MORE

Caregiver Story: Bunnie Schwartz

When I was 35 years old my sister was 45. She was diagnosed with stage 4 c [...]

READ MORE

Patient Story: Pierre

Recently, we had the pleasure of sitting down with Pierre, who was diagno [...]

READ MORE

Patient Story: Meagan

I was diagnosed at 29. I was 9 months pregnant with my daughter and my tod [...]

READ MORE

Patient Story: Stephen

My name is Stephen. Thank you for allowing me to tell you my story. Up [...]

READ MORE

Patient Story: Don McQuaig

The day will be etched in my memory forever. On February 28, 2006 afte [...]

READ MORE

Patient Story: Henry Klumak

In early December 2016, Klumak was diagnosed with Stage 4 metastatic colo [...]

READ MORE

Cancer Recurrence amid COVID-19: Robin’s Story

It was the day of the lockdown. My family doctor called. “The colorectal c [...]

READ MORE

Aneta’s Story

I am grateful. I am grateful for the storm and I am grateful for all the m [...]

READ MORE

My Cancer Story: Annette Reilly

My story begins when I was 30 years old. I had started directing theatre a [...]

READ MORE

A PASSION FOR CARE – by Robert Hamilton

The colonoscopy room seemed small when filled with bizarre equipment. My [...]

READ MORE

Gemma’s Story

My name is Gemma (Filipino-Canadian). I have colorectal cancer, stage 3B [...]

READ MORE

Kathy Torunski’s Story

I recently had the distinct pleasure of attending the Brice Tiamuh Blue R [...]

READ MORE

VANESSA’S STORY

It was the summer of 2009 and I was only 21 years old...My mother, who was [...]

READ MORE

Paul Smeltzer

When I was 49 years old, I conducted the FIT (fecal) test as instructed by [...]

READ MORE

Mary Devera

I was diagnosed with colorectal cancer at a young age – 36 years old and 8 [...]

READ MORE

A Wife’s Worst Fear Realized – Gilda’s Story

Hi, my name is Gilda. Our story starts out like many others who are diagno [...]

READ MORE

The Dark, Long and Winding Road…Dominic Loccisano’s Story

I would like to thank Colorectal Cancer Canada (CCC) for their ongoing hel [...]

READ MORE

Sponsors

Sponsor Logo
Sponsor Logo
Sponsor Logo
Sponsor Logo
Sponsor Logo
Sponsor Logo
Sponsor Logo
Sponsor Logo
Sponsor Logo
Sponsor Logo
Sponsor Logo
Sponsor Logo
Sponsor Logo
Sponsor Logo
Sponsor Logo
Sponsor Logo
Sponsor Logo
Sponsor Logo
Sponsor Logo
Sponsor Logo
Sponsor Logo
Sponsor Logo