In this week's episode of This Hits Different, Shelby Cassesse checks back in with Seneca Valley athletic director Heather Lewis, who was able to ring the bell after a ten-month battle with cancer.
Seneca Valley AD rings the bell
The last time we spoke to Seneca Valley Athletic Director Heather Lewis, she was recovering from a difficult surgery, in the midst of intense treatment for breast cancer.
“I had days where I was angry,” she said. “I had days where, so to speak, the game plan didn’t work and I got frustrated. But that’s kind of the analogy of sport: the initial game plan didn’t work. Well, we’re going to have to change it.”
She also had just received a surprise visit, from 80+ Raiders football players who showed up in her front yard one October afternoon. Far from the only sign of support over these last ten months.
“It’s been so critical to get me through the last ten months,” Lewis said. “I’m humbled by it. I’m just really blessed that, at the end of the day, as exhausted as we all are doing our jobs over the past couple of years, I had a group of 80 callers who had my back all the way through.”
These days, she's doing a lot of celebrating. She's set and reached many goals since her diagnosis, recently achieving one of the biggest and most important.
By ringing the bell in her hospital hallway, Lewis marked the end of her cancer treatment.
“It was emotional, I was unprepared for the emotion that overcame me,” she said.
Emotional because it was a long, difficult road to that moment, but also...
“I’m really lucky that I got to ring the bell,” Lewis said. “But not everybody in my pod got to ring the bell or will get to ring the bell. That’s a hard thing.”
Now, Lewis is back at work full-time at Seneca Valley. But we caught up with her at the tail end of a recent trip to Florida, one that's been booked since last summer. Lewis said she was struggling in the middle of chemo and needed something to look forward to.
“Everything was good until thee third surgery came up and it pushed me back and delayed my radiation,” she said. “So I was talking to my radiation doctor at the first meeting and I was like, ‘I’ve got this vacation planned January 6. Please tell me I can go.’ And she looked at me and said, ‘you’re gong.’”
Lewis is looking ahead to the next steps, which includes lots of physical therapy, regular appointments and scans, and long-term medication plans. And speaking of goals, Heather has another big one up ahead. Hitting the golf course this spring.
“I’m really just hopeful that I’ll be swinging a golf club in late April, early May,” she said. “I probably need that even more than I recognize.”
She says that, along with the support of her medical team, family and community, it's the mind of an athlete that has helped her through some of her most difficult moments.
Understanding that you have to keep going, even when it’s hard, rally is what you should be taking away from sports. That’s what life is. That’s what the last ten months were like for me.
That's the type of outlook Heather will take with her on the road ahead, all while hoping her story can help even one other person.
“I just wanted to get my story out there to let everybody know, from those walking the journey to those helping and there for those walking the journey. It’s not easy, but you can get through it.”