Catherine's Story

From the shores of La Jolla to Paris, France, Komen San Diego provides strength and comfort to Survivor Catherine Chamboux-Hales

Catherine Chamboux-Hales, a resident of Paris, France, first became aware of Komen San Diego while visiting family and friends in La Jolla. “It was September of 2008 (that) I was in the Carmel Creek Library and saw an advertisement for the (annual) 5K run. I thought it would be a great thing to participate in. It would be the first time Catherine participated in a “cancer event.” She participated as a breast cancer survivor.

Catherine’s first brush with breast cancer was in 1998. Hoping to have a second child, her dreams were shattered when a routine mammogram showed a tumor. The tumor was malignant. 

“Everything went quite quickly,” Catherine recalled. “I went everyday to the hospital like a ‘somnambulist’ (zombie).

“During radiotherapy I closed my eyes and just thought of getting away from the hospital as fast as possible. It was like I was in denial.” Catherine did not want to go through Curie therapy (radiation), but her doctor convinced her to change her mind, despite the fact it was unknown whether the treatment would be effective.

Two short days after completing Curie therapy, Catherine traveled to La Jolla to visit her family. “It was only when I took my first swim in the (Pacific) ocean that I felt alive and strong again.”

Catherine was able to fulfill her dream of having a second child, giving birth to a baby girl in 2007. But despite getting her life back to normal, she never forgot the experience of having breast cancer, especially when anniversary dates of operations and treatments came around. Eventually, she said, she began to live without talking about breast cancer or even thinking about the consequences of her treatments.

Then, in 2007, a tumor was discovered in the same breast. Whether a new tumor or the return of the original tumor, Catherine treatment included a mastectomy and chemotherapy.

“It was difficult…harder in every way than the first time, because of the mastectomy and the side effects from chemotherapy.” It was particularly difficult for her daughter, “Who is quite fond of ‘feminine aspects’.” Losing her hair to chemotherapy, as well as problems with both finger-and toenails during a long period was difficult to accept.

“The (illness) due to treatment and the constant fatigue are impossible to undergo without pain. Everything…all the projects (plans) I had made with my family were simply destroyed.”

“Yet somehow I wrote every day in a diary about all the stages I was going through. We went through all those bad, long months and (still) managed to go to California for six months,” instead of the 12 months that were originally planned. “Again I felt so alive when I was in La Jolla.

Of course, to be near our family and our friends, to feel the beauty of the light there helped a lot. I even took the hormone therapy without too much discomfort.”

Unfortunately, in 2010, Catherine discovered there was a third tumor in her remaining breast. “I felt miserable (and) just wanted everything to stop at that moment. I could not go on anymore and everything went slowly.” Catherine had a second mastectomy but no follow-up treatment. Again, she headed to La Jolla for the summer, and is convinced that was what cured her.

“I am beginning to feel things again. I started to (take care of myself) by having spa therapy and by beginning reconstructive surgery.

“I don’t really know if I learned something from all those years,” Catherine said. “If I had energy, it came from my family and friends who helped me, and (they were the reason) I wanted to go on. “It seems that cancer was the center of my life and that all other events turned around it. What would have I done without them? I just don’t want to think about it. I moved on.

“Maybe I have more vitality than I think (I have),” she said. “I had my daughter and I tried to take care of my children. I wrote a book (that will be published this fall in France), and I am still here. I enjoy the world around me.

“Illness, pain and death are the same everywhere, but to be aware of the beauty of nature, to be sensitive to the force of the sea, the light, the trees, etc., is something that has restored some parts of me. I also would like to have the strength to write a second book about my third cancer, and all the adventures concerning the reconstruction in order to (contribute) to the knowledge of people who suffer from the same terrible illness.

“Letting others know how people go through the experience could eventually help other patients and lead to better care.”

If you would like to share your story, please email Nancy Robinson at njrobinson.susangkomen@gmail.com.  By emailing Nancy your story, you are giving us rights to share your story with others.  Also, if you would like, please include a picture to share.  Thank you.