Dorothy Burnhams’s Story

How has breast cancer affected your life?

Dorothy Burnham was in the middle of early motherhood when breast cancer entered her life.

It was May 2018. Dorothy was nursing her infant while her two-year-old played with toy trucks at her feet when she noticed a lumpy area in her left breast.

At the time, everything in her life revolved around babies. She had also experienced complications nursing her first child, so she assumed the lump had something to do with breastfeeding. Maybe it was a blocked milk duct. Maybe mastitis. Maybe something that antibiotics could treat.

A few days later, she called her OB because she was not feeling well. She was able to get an appointment the next day, where a midwife felt optimistic the area would clear with antibiotics but suggested an ultrasound out of caution.

The local hospital scheduled the ultrasound two and a half weeks away.

Dorothy remembers driving home and thinking, almost with a laugh, that it was either serious or it was not, and she was not waiting two and a half weeks to find out.

So she called the ultrasound department herself.

She got an appointment for the next morning.

 

What happened at that ultrasound?

Dorothy’s mother came over to watch the kids. Her husband, James, went to work for a busy day of meetings. Dorothy let her boss know she would miss a call or two and headed to the hospital for what still seemed like a precautionary screening.

Before leaving, she kissed her boys’ little baby heads and brought her breast pump with her, just in case she needed to empty her breasts for the ultrasound.

Within hours, everything had changed.

Dorothy saw an ultrasound technician. Then the chief radiologist came in. Then someone from the breast surgery department was contacted. By the end of the visit, Dorothy was crying while pumping in the office of a labor and delivery nurse.

She had not expected any of it.

No one had.

Dorothy was a young mother who thought she was dealing with a nursing complication. Instead, the radiologist saw something concerning.

“I see a solid mass,” he told her.

Dorothy asked him directly, “You don’t like what you see, do you?”

“No,” he answered. “I don’t.”

 

How did you respond in that moment?

The consultant in Dorothy took over.

She wanted to know the next step. When the doctor explained that a biopsy would be needed, Dorothy asked who could do it and when. When he said his office could, she asked if it could be done right then.

He agreed.

While the team prepared, Dorothy called her mom to say she would be later than expected and that the doctor did not like what he saw.

“Oh shit,” her mother said.

That reaction was enough to make Dorothy understand that something was very wrong.

Then she called James. He said he would be right there.

Thinking about both of their reactions, Dorothy threw up in the bathroom.

She returned to the room, had two areas biopsied, and asked what would happen next. The team explained that results would likely come through the breast oncology department, maybe by Friday or early the next week.

But Dorothy’s mind was still partly in the ordinary life she had left that morning. She wanted to know if it was safe to nurse her baby after the numbing medicine used for the biopsy.

The radiology team was not sure, so Dorothy asked if she could go up to labor and delivery to speak with a lactation nurse.

A few minutes later, she was climbing the same stairs she had climbed before the births of her sons.

She knocked on the door of the nurse who had helped her when she was struggling to feed her first baby.

“I think I have cancer,” Dorothy said, as she began to cry.

Then came the question that sits at the center of so many parents’ cancer stories.

“How will I take care of my boys?”

What did breast cancer take from that season of motherhood?

Dorothy has been honest about the losses that came with being diagnosed while her children were so young.

“The last thing I did before heading to chemo was nurse Luke one final time,” she shared in 2020.

That moment carried real grief. Dorothy felt the loss of nursing, the loss of parts of Luke’s babyhood, and the loss of having another child.

Those were some of the defining pieces of cancer for her.

Her treatment did not happen outside of motherhood. It happened right in the middle of it.

There were babies to care for. There were routines to keep. There was a family that still needed her, even as she was facing something no one expected.

 

How did breast cancer change the way you see everyday life?

Dorothy has said that, in one sense, she feels she “dodged a bullet for the moment.”

But the experience left her with a different understanding of what matters.

Having cancer with two small children at home helped her stop unraveling over the things that did not deserve that much of her energy.

It also left daily reminders.

Dorothy has been honest about the physical changes and emotional weight that come with breast cancer. Surgery changed her body. Medication brought weight gain from chemical menopause. Swelling kept her from wearing her rings. Her hair grew back curly in a way that felt difficult for someone who craved neatness and order.

Those things may not have been the most important, but they still mattered.

They reminded Dorothy that she was not as in control of her life as she once thought.

They also reminded her that control was never the whole point.

 

What does Runway mean to you now?

Dorothy has been part of Runway not only as someone sharing her story, but also as a leader within the organization.

Today, she serves on Runway for Recovery’s Board of Directors.

That role matters because Dorothy understands what it means for breast cancer to interrupt a family’s life. She knows what it is to be a parent in treatment, to worry about children, and to need support that sees the whole family.

That truth is part of why her story resonates.

 

What are we celebrating this year?

This year, we are celebrating Dorothy’s life after breast cancer and the way she continues to show up for Runway families.

We can’t wait to cheer her on as she takes the stage again!