Remembering Life Before My Breast Cancer Diagnosis

When I was 13 years old in 1976, I joined a pre-professional children’s ballet company in Akron, Ohio, called The Cuyahoga Valley Youth Ballet. I danced in this company for about four years. One of my most memorable roles was that of one of the hunters in Peter and the Wolf. Being in the company was a wonderful experience because it was a touring group that visited schools and performed for the kids in the school gymnasiums. The company was run by Nan Klinger.

Flash forward to 2025. The company is still going strong but has been renamed Ballet Excel Ohio and is now run by Mia Klinger, Nan’s youngest daughter. Two weeks ago, the company hosted a gala to celebrate its 50th anniversary and its vision in the ballet community. My husband and I went to this gala, and we had a grand time!

What was so nice about it was that the party was populated by people from my distant past, none of whom knew about my struggles with two bouts of breast cancer. There, at the Ballet Excel Gala, I was just Laurie Yeager, a kid from Akron who used to dance, not Laura Yeager the breast cancer survivor. As you might guess, when I was asked about my life experiences to date, I didn’t bring up my struggle with cancer, which started in 2011 and then recurred in 2016. I simply talked about my life as a writing teacher and writer, and my son who has just started college.

Being free from the cancer label for a night was a liberating experience. It reminded me of how good my life was when I was a child and performing in ballet, as well as in theater groups, dabbling in many art forms. I guess you could say that I spent my childhood knowing that I wanted to be an artist but trying to figure out what kind of artist I’d be.

In addition to doing ballet, I acted in local theater at dinner theaters. I was “Baby June,” in Gypsy and "Sprintze,” in Fiddler on the Roof, as well as other characters in other plays. Then, of course, I played the violin in local youth orchestras. And again, I was in another version of Fiddler on the Roof, this time as the “Fiddler.”

Dancing, acting, playing the violin. None of these seemed like the art form for me. (My secret desire was to be a Rockette, but I was five inches too short.)

Then, when I was 15, I took Creative Writing with a man named Mr. Robert Stitt at Cuyahoga Falls High School. And something clicked. Let’s just say that the experience was extremely positive, so much so that Mr. Stitt offered to tutor me in writing. He organized a private study in my junior year. Mr. Stitt was an excellent teacher, both in the classroom and privately. I was to write five short stories. One of the stories, “Al,” was about a janitor at my elementary school. He liked the story and encouraged me to send it to Seventeen’s Fiction Contest. Four months later, I learned that I had won the honorable mention that came with a $50 prize. That was nice pen money (pun intended) in the 1970s for a teenager.

This success propelled me and enabled me to keep writing. I had found my art form.

It’s now almost five decades, three writing degrees, hundreds of bylines, and 40 years of experience as a writing teacher later. Again, I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011 and then again in 2016. I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t have writing to voice my feelings about living with this issue. I haven’t published a novel (yet), but I have blogged for almost ten years about cancer. Writing is my art form. I’m so glad I have the pen and its power in my wheelhouse.

In conclusion, Ballet Excel Ohio’s gala was glorious and fun, and it telescoped me back to my childhood when there was no cancer and little pain. I was carefree.

But life happens. I did develop cancer, and I did survive it. I’m just happy my writing could carry through the negative experience.

I made it through and lived to write about it.

What more could I ask for?

This piece reflects the author’s personal experience and perspective as a breast cancer survivor. For medical advice, please consult your health care provider.

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