Lakewood Ranch woman to share family cancer survival at Making Strides kickoff

People say laughter is the best medicine. 

For Lakewood Ranch’s Allison Imre, the idiom couldn’t be more true. 

When her sister, Jennifer Imre-Justus, was in the hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, going through treatment for breast cancer, the sisters depended on laughter to get through the toughest moments. 

Imre-Justus was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer in 2019. They spent the holidays in 2020 at the hospital. 

“After chemo, her fingernails and toenails started popping off randomly,” Imre said. “We would joke that the Elf on the Shelf was actually a tiny sniper that was locked in on her fingernails and toenails. Every time one popped off, that was the Elf on the Shelf.”

Imre said everyone has a different way of coping, and for her family, it was laughter. 

“Laughter is life, and so it gives and brings hope,” Imre said. “It’s one thing to be educated (about cancer) and to have the support, but you have to be present and practical. You also have to not let it own you and that’s where laughter comes in. Laughter is very powerful.”

Imre will share her sister’s story and her own story of being a cancer survivor at the American Cancer Society’s kickoff to Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk. The kickoff event is Aug. 25 at the Ritz-Carlton in Sarasota. 

“When you have breast cancer, the diagnosis is one thing, it just takes the air out of your lungs,” Imre said. “But then there’s the treatment and the treatment is so intrusive that even when you beat cancer, you still have to deal with the side effects. Watching her go through it has led me to really want to have an impact as much as possible.”

The kickoff event is to gear up for the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer race Oct. 22 at Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota. 

“Everybody has compassion for it, everybody understands it, everybody knows the need, but maybe my story about how it really affected me directly will be helpful,” Imre said. “There’s the quote ‘People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.’ If I can make them feel like they have power by supporting the American Cancer Society, that’s my goal.”

Imre-Justus’ breast cancer diagnosis came four years after Imre was diagnosed with stage three kidney cancer in November 2015. 

She remembers the day she was diagnosed and the night leading up to it like it was yesterday. 

Imre, a huge Kansas City Royals fan, was celebrating her favorite team winning the World Series in game seven.  

“That night, I got so ill that I had to go to the hospital,” Imre said. “It turned out that I was diagnosed the next day with stage three kidney cancer. I had no idea I was sick. When you hear the word ‘cancer,’ time stops. My son had just turned 1 year old and I was very busy in my career, but boy, howdy, it makes you shuffle every priority in your life.”

The only option Imre had was to have the cancer surgically removed so 15 days after her diagnosis she was in an operating room. Imre said her doctor brought in a transplant surgeon just in case they had to take her whole kidney. 

“They cut me in half like a magic trick and removed the tumor, which was about the size of a pear, and only had to remove part of my kidney,” Imre said. “When people see the scar nowadays, I just tell them I was bit by a shark.”

Imre has been cancer-free ever since her surgery.

“It was like I had a new lease on life,” Imre said. “It makes you enjoy every moment just a little bit more.”

When Imre-Justus was first diagnosed, it reminded Imre of when she was 4 years old sitting in the hospital at the bedside of her grandmother, Anna Hammer-Smith, who was battling breast cancer. Hammer-Smith died from breast cancer. 

Imre-Justus’ journey with breast cancer came with uncertainty at every stage, Imre said. 

“They’ll do the scans and they think it’s one thing and then they do the biopsy and they find out it’s another thing,” Imre said. “Then they do surgery, and still, again, the goalposts move one more time. It’s a journey of discovery and two steps forward, one step back until you ring that darn bell.”

Imre-Justus had a double mastectomy, radiation and chemotherapy. 

But in June 2021, Imre watched as her sister rang the bell, signifying she was one year cancer free. 

“It was invigorating,” Imre said. “There were so many people there whom I had never seen, whom she didn’t know from Adam, but you ring that bell and everybody knows what it is and everybody celebrates together. It brings hope to more than just the person who’s yanking the cord. Everybody who hears that bell can see themselves in those shoes. It was wonderful to watch that glimmer, that excitement, that support come from a roomful of strangers.”

Now Imre does whatever she can to support the American Cancer Society.

“There’s two options when you hear the word ‘cancer,’” Imre said. “You can either crumble and succumb, or you stand up and fight. That’s why the work of the American Cancer Society is so important. While they might not be as known for being boots on the ground and standing in hospital rooms with patients and survivors, they are the ones behind the scenes funding all the research and all the technological advancement that has increased the survivability rate astronomically.”

Although Imre had donated to the American Cancer Society in the past, she didn’t see the organization’s true impact until her diagnosis. 

She said her medical care providers and surgical team all put her in touch with resources through the American Cancer Society in case she wanted to speak with someone to understand the impact of having cancer, how cancer grows and more. 

“I honestly don’t know if I would have been able to function without (the resources of the American Cancer Society),” Imre said. “Having the power of knowledge and the strength provided from support were life changing, not just for me but for my family.”