Crown Point resident Shelly Barnes’ battle with cancer started in January 2014 after her girlfriend passed away from breast cancer. Barnes had grandkids who she did not want to leave, so she had her daughter-in-law find her a place for a mammogram. Barnes is a teacher for children with special needs who wanted a place that did not require insurance and was free.
“She called a lot of hospitals and ended up at Methodist Hospitals,” said Barnes. “They said that they have a $25,000 grant that they get from the Chicago Bears every year and to come on in. I made an appointment to go in, and it was breast cancer.”
Through the Chicago Bears’ Bears Care program, Barnes was able to get a mammogram which helped her get diagnosed. Methodist Hospitals’ Southlake campus also sent Barnes to a place where she could have her biopsy for free. After a difficult year before with losing her mother, Barnes would start chemotherapy treatments in March.
As part of her treatment, Barnes would also have surgery to take half of her breast off as well. One of Barnes’ sons helped her shave her head so her long hair would not come out in clumps.
“My dad came down and my daughter was off from work at that time, so they took turns taking me to my appointments,” said Barnes. “I had four rounds of AC chemotherapy and 36 rounds of Taxol, and then I had 12 rounds of Taxol and 36 rounds of radiation.”
Before her radiation, Barnes and her family took a break to go to Turkey Run State Park. Ever since her twins were 2, they had been going to the park.
When they came back, they found out that Barnes’ father had a rare bladder cancer. Sadly, he passed away two weeks later.
“When they do radiation, they all leave the room,” said Barnes. “That's when I would grieve for my dad. I would just cry during my whole process of my radiation. I was really close with both my mom and my dad.”
Her parents lived down in Florida, and she would always call them at 3:30 p.m. after she finished teaching during the day. Her next step was to call her other son, a member of the National Guard who was serving abroad. With the seriousness of her cancer, Barnes wanted to make sure she got to talk to him.
“He was serving in the National Guard in Afghanistan, which I did not know at the time. He did not want to tell us that he was going to Afghanistan because he did not want us to worry about him,” said Barnes.
It was he, however, who really inspired Barnes to keep going. In these calls, Barnes’ son made it very clear he did not want to lose his mother or attend her funeral, and it was from that moment on that Barnes knew she was going to fight.
“I said, ‘I want you to come back,’” said Barnes. “‘When you get back home, I want you to give me a kiss whenever you come in through the door.’ I think it was from that point on that I decided, ‘Nope, I'm not dying from this.’ God and I had a talk. I was not going to die from this.”
Barnes would then go to live with her other son and her grandkids for almost a year. They lived in a split house where Barnes would only come up with her makeup on to stay strong so her grandkids did not have to worry. She also helped to keep her bathroom looking like it belongs in the Hilton Hotel.
“My son is a carpenter, and he made it like a house in his lower level,” said Barnes. “Whenever I was there, I would tell him, ‘You don't ever want me to leave.’ He said, ‘Mom I never said you had to leave.’”
Barnes would get a trailer to live in by October. Since beating cancer 10 years ago, she has started to eat better by being gluten-free and watching what she eats. Despite her husband being a Green Bay Packers fan, they both are avid Bears fans thanks to the Bears Cares Program.