Pocono News Section

Woman Survives Cancer - Four Times

Woman Survives Cancer - Four Times - Friday, September 5, 2008 at 2:48PM EST

Reported by: Laurie Monteforte
Friday, Sep 5, 2008 @ 02:48pm EST
EAST STROUDSBURG - We often hear people say they fought or battled cancer but one woman in north east Pennsylvania says those terms are too negative. She prefers to say she hoped and believed she'd make it through.

Suzanne Zale Buck actually likes to visit her doctor's office. "I am treated so well here. This is like a second home to me," she said.

Doctors and staff from Pocono Medical Center helped Suzanne survive Ovarian Cancer -- four times.

"She's done remarkably well," said Medical Oncologist Bill Ryan.

Now she's not just a patient. She's also a friend.

Suzanne's first cancer struck almost twenty years ago. She had a tumor on her ovary. She had a hysterectomy and chemotherapy. Doctors pronounced her cancer free. Three years later it came back.

Buck explained, "The ovarian cells migrated to the colon."

She thought she'd have to go to Philadelphia for treatment but a doctor told her don't worry about it. He said just stay home because you have a great treatment center right in your own back yard. The Dale and Francis Hughes Cancer Center.

"There was no reason for me to drive two and a half hours to and fro for chemotherapy or treatment when we have this magnificent facility right in my backyard," said Buck.

After six months of chemotherapy near home, her life went on. Then three years later, doctors found two spots on her liver. The cells matched her previous cancers. "So it was not liver cancer, it was ovarian cancer to the liver," she said.

Once again, she survived. And she lived the next ten years cancer free. Until Doctors found ovarian cancer cells in her lungs. "One again, it's remarkable," she said.

And once again, she survived.

Buck said, "I don't battle and I don't fight. I just receive that chemotherapy which is fabulous and I'm a lucky girl."

A lucky lady who now wants to use her story to spread a message of hope and awareness to others.

"I'm in a place of hope and peace and well being," she said.

She is spreading her message of hope with the Suzanne Zale Buck first annual Ovarian Cancer Awareness Gala Friday night.

Proceeds will help women who are going through cancer.