She’ll share it at Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk
OCEAN CITY — For years, Dawn Coyle took part in the American Cancer Society Making Strikes Against Breast Cancer walk on the Ocean City Boardwalk.
“Just being a local and being a woman, I thought, you know, I should go do that,” she said.
Then she started noticing more women she knew, friends and neighbors, getting diagnosed.
She thought, “Wow, it’s really important that I go and I do this. It was incredible every time I went … the strength and bravery was just incredible.”
And then it became as personal as it gets, a story that’s both terrible and wonderful at the same time.
Coyle was diligent getting her mammograms since she was 40 years old. Fifteen years in a row she had them without fail.
Getting ready to turn 56, the COVID-19 pandemic had hit and she had just been through a divorce. Her mammogram reminder came up in the calendar.
She wasn’t going to do it.
“I’m just not in the mood. I don’t have time for this. I don’t have any issues. I don’t have any lumps. I don’t have any pain. I don’t have any family history,” she recounted.
She figured after 15 years everything was fine and she could delay or skip it. As the days went by, the little voice in Coyle’s head was nagging her.
“It was really just getting louder and louder,” she said. Coyle heeded the internal advice and had the mammogram done.
The medical center sent her a letter stating that physicians saw something and asked her to come back in.
She had more testing, a biopsy and then the diagnosis.
“I had two types of breast cancer in two different places in one breast,” Coyle said.
“If I had not gotten my mammogram, I may not be here. … I really feel that that preventative screening saved my life.”
She is going to share her story Oct. 12 at the 2025 Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk as the featured speaker.
“If it only saves
one life …”
Coyle said she is compelled to tell her story and share the straightforward advice: “Get your mammogram done every single year, no matter what life is throwing your way, because it literally could save your life.”
“If that story helps one woman, it’s worth telling it, because prevention is truly the key when it comes to breast cancer,” she said.
“If I hadn’t gotten that mammogram, hmm, I don’t even want to go there.”
Her trip wasn’t easy. She had some “pretty complicated surgery,” complications after surgery, 20 rounds of radiation and medication “with brutal side effects” and she still has some physical limitations.
But many types of breast cancer are very manageable and treatable, depending on the type and when they’re caught.
Even though it wasn’t an easy road, she is happy she is alive.
“I really just choose to focus on being grateful to be here, trying to feel as good as I can, be as healthy as I can, and to be that advocate and that voice and that source of support for others going through not just breast cancer, any cancer.”
And to do something else: “Really just scream as loud as I can” for routine screenings and, if that screening comes with a diagnosis, to attack it head on.
“You can’t conquer what you don’t confront,” Coyle said.
Some women don’t want to get mammograms because they can be painful and uncomfortable and decide they don’t really need it because of how they feel and lack of a family history of cancer.
“That can’t happen,” she said. “We have to protect ourselves and, again, you can’t conquer what you don’t confront. If you have cancer, accepting it is really, really difficult, but that’s what you need to do.
“You can hate cancer, but you can’t refuse to give in and let it win,” Coyle said.
She acknowledges not all those battles can be won and those women who have succumbed should be honored and remembered, but those who are fighting it “absolutely need to be supported.”
As shown by the annual American Cancer Society fundraising walk, which last year drew more than 5,000 participants, there is support out there.
“No one’s alone. We’re all in this together. … If one woman gets her mammogram because of something she heard me say, and that led to detection or to someone that she’s related to getting their detection and prevention, it’s worth it,” Coyle said.
So that’s the terrible and the wonderful. The terrible being the diagnosis and cancer fight, the wonderful being the fact it was caught early enough so that Coyle survived and is able to share her story.
Despite all the distractions of life, she said women have to be vigilant and diligent to do the screenings to get the information they need to fight the fight that could be ahead.
Coyle encourages people to come out to the Making Strides event that Sunday morning to learn what the American Cancer Society has to offer in terms of programs, information and support, and to see they are not alone.
“If you have never been to the walk, go just one time to experience the unbelievable support strength, bravery and hope. The connection is just incredible,” she said.
“I remember right after I got diagnosed, I went to the walk and it just became such a different feel for me. It went from, ‘Wow, this is a really neat community event’ to ‘Oh, my God, you know, these women are here for me.’ It really was unbelievable.”
The Making Strides event is 8:30 a.m. to noon Sunday, Oct. 12, a Survivor Celebration at 9:45 a.m. and walk on the boardwalk beginning at 10 a.m. It is at the Ocean City Civic Center at the boardwalk end of Sixth Street, between Ocean City High School’s Carey Stadium and the Fifth Street public parking lot.
– By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
