Essentially, twins have an inbreakable bond.
It wasn't surprising that Connie Craze and Courtney Drover did it all together. He grew up in Saskatchewan, moved to Alberta and works in the same place.
The same pair of twins experience life through a similar lens. In their late 20s, they still faced the biggest challenges – lined up.
“I'm actually the oldest twin in five minutes. It feels like I did it all first,” explains Drover.
“This wasn't different either. I was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer in 2015.”
The drawbar was only a few months away from him when he turned 30.
“I actually had a lump under my armpits…it's young so it's not even on your radar… Honestly, I've never been so shocked in my life.”
Drover began 8 rounds of chemotherapy, undergoing double mastectomy and radiation therapy.
The news of the diagnosis forced Connie, who is not symptomatic, to be checked.
“All I knew was that I had breast cancer too, so I was called to the clinic,” recalls Craze.
“It was unprecedented at the time, especially in 2015. It was horrifying for a woman of our age.”
Claeys believes that her sister helped her find cancer quickly, and the two sought answers on how this would happen to both.
“We went through a test for the BRCA2 gene and found out we have both.
“It answered our question: We both (breast cancer) and we can accept it more,” Drover explained.
A few years later, both women thought they were avoiding the illness.
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More than five years after her initial diagnosis of Drover, she discovered another lump in her neck, this time spreading the 4 breast nodes and nearby lymph nodes to other organs, and was diagnosed again with Stave 4 metastatic breast cancer.
It once again shakes the close family, and Craze says she felt a lot of guilt as she watched her start the fight again.
“When the court was diagnosed in 2020 and when I was without cancer at the time, I think it was the most difficult two years of my life.”
However, in 2022, Claeys will also resume her fight.
“I'm actually just supporting her in my appointment with Courtney. The oncologist asked me to be part of a trial to prevent metastatic breast cancer from occurring.”
Claeys agreed and underwent a CT scan to make everything clear.
“I ended up putting a lump in my left lung.
“Instead of going to try to prevent that, I got a stage 4 diagnosis.”
It was a battle that lasted for ten years and continues for the rest of their lives.
The sisters already thought they were inseparable, but this experience brought them even closer.
“When I'm having a bad day and say, 'My medicine made me feel this way,' she gets it because the exact same thing is happening in her body – the exact same feelings,” Drover said.
The two women live apart from each other for a few minutes in Okotoks, Alta. They say they are thriving, but their experiences are still somewhat different today.
Drover struggles with the effects of the drug more than Craze, who she says is still unsymptomatic.
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“When you're not undergoing chemotherapy, have hair and don't look physically ill, you just feel bad… Your family and friends try to understand that, but they really don't understand that,” Claeys added.
“When there are people who understand what you're doing, it's understand what you're going through. That makes sense.”
What remains the same is their common commitment to making the most of the little things in life.
“The initial diagnosis, or the stage 4 diagnosis, didn't know if Christmas would be the last Christmas,” Drover said.
“We didn't expect to get our first diagnosis, let alone another diagnosis after that. I think we really value little things right now.”
“The more years you pass, the more scary it turns out,” Craze said.
“Now you think you've only been given three to five years (to live), are you three to five years and approaching the end of the rope?
Next month, the twins will do another thing together. Join CIBC and run for treatments that support the Canadian Cancer Society.
It will be the third look in both.
“We've seen advances in research since 2015 and 2022,” Claeys says. “So I just wanted to be part of something that really allows me to fund this progress and be part of it.”
While fundraising is the event's goal, the twins say there's a lot more.
“It's a lot about the community,” Drover said.
“Cancer can be a very lonely journey. You can feel like 'No one understands me',” Craze said.
“To see all these people out there… you're like, 'I'm not alone.' All these people are here for me and I am here for everyone else. ”
CIBC will take place on Sunday, October 5th in more than 50 communities across Canada.
“Runs are really a day, a few hours…but it lasts forever.
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