Within a matter of months, the three Page sisters Sharee, 34, Annette, 35, and sister-in-law Lindsay, 38, all learned the devastating news that they all had cancer.
First it was Lindsay with the news that her angiosarcoma (cancer in the inner lining of blood vessels) had come back with a vengeance to her liver and lungs. In April two months later, it was Sharee with Stage II breast cancer, and then two weeks later it was Annette with Stage III breast cancer.
Both Sharee and Annette learned they each carried the BRCA2 gene.
But despite the terrible circumstances to have fallen on the family, the three women – who live close to each other in Utah, US, are all in good spirits and trying to do the best they can.
Lindsay, a stay-at-home mum with four kids, tells People: “We all decided early on that we weren’t going to let this get us down. I don’t know where I’ll be a year from now, and that’s a scary thought.
“But you have to have faith, hope and humour. You can sit around and be sad. What possible good can come from that?”
Sharee, who works for a time-management company and is single, is documenting her journey on YouTube with a light-hearted videos, saying: “I love to laugh. Why let cancer get in the way?”
She continued: “It just hit me that everybody has a trial or hardship of some kind. It’s how you choose to face those hardships that matters.”
One of Sharee’s videos documented Annette – who works for a nutritional supplement company and is also single – helping shave her head. They now call themselves ‘the bald sisters’.
The one positive? Speedy showers.
Sharee said: “There’s no shampooing, no conditioning and no hair to clean up. We all agree that it’s a real time-saver.”
They call themselves the ‘the bald sisters’.
Lindsay is currently on a new immunotherapy trial treatment and is hopeful – her last scan showed that her tumours were no longer growing.
Annette’s cancer is particularly aggressive and has spread to her lymph nodes, but the three women are still full of hope.
“Attitude means everything when you’re trying to get through cancer,” says Annette.
Sharee adds: “We’re optimistic that one day the three of us will look back and say, ‘Remember that time when we all had cancer?’”
Watch Sharee get her head shaved below and to see the full video, click here.
