Cancer can’t stop Santa Rosa sisters (w/video)

The enduring image of Santa Rosa sisters Catherine and Ann DuBay as each faced down breast cancer is of sneakers and sweat, and hairless women in snug hats running, walking, placing one foot in front of the other.

Longtime running enthusiasts dedicated to fitness, both say exercise got them through long months of chemotherapy and noxious side effects that took a toll on mind and body.

But the sisters, individually, said their commitment to working out was as much about a determination to maintain some sense of routine amid the disruptions of a life-threatening condition as it was about the physical and mental benefits of exercise.

Catherine DuBay, general manager of the Montecito Heights Health and Racquet Club and a well-known figure in the racing community, said her path isn’t necessarily for everyone. But running, swimming, walking, “made me feel strong,” she said. “Running, being with running friends, wearing running clothes, made me feel normal.”

Those who saw the sisters confront their diagnosis and treatment would say both displayed a strength and optimism that continues to inspire and draw others dealing with breast cancer to them.

Ann DuBay said she took to heart her oncologist’s advice to resist letting cancer define her life - that “life continues.” And in her three-days-a-week, predawn spin class, she found herself in the embrace of friends who offered love and social interaction as she embraced the exertion and endorphins that helped subdue her symptoms.

“Just being on a bike, even if I couldn’t spin very hard, felt normal to me,” she said.

Catherine’s husband, Mark Mathewson, said neither sister was “willing to spend any time … wallowing in their misery.”

“They really are my role models,” said Carol DuBay, a third sister. “I say that with all sincerity. I feel like I got the best role models right here in our own family. I don’t have to look far at all.”

Ann and Cathy are the bookends of four daughters each born about a year apart to the late Bette and Tom DuBay, both public school teachers. Ann, who turned 54 Monday, is the oldest. Catherine, 50, is the youngest. Jeannette Engel and Carol DuBay, both also Santa Rosa residents, fall in between.

The sisters first encountered breast cancer as young adults when their mother was diagnosed. Bette DuBay underwent surgery and chemotherapy, and was pronounced cancer-free, until a recurrence claimed her life in 1991 at age 56.

Several years later, one of the sisters’ first cousins on their mother’s side developed cancer. She was 39 when she died.

As the oldest sister, Ann DuBay, a former editorial writer for The Press Democrat who works in community and government affairs for the Sonoma County Water Agency, generally led the way among her sisters. Her reputation for thorough research, vetting of alternatives and intelligent, fact-based decisions meant her sisters could feel comfortable, for instance, electing for themselves whatever pediatrician or preschool Ann determined was best for her son, Jake, now 21.

Finding a lump

Cancer, said Catherine DuBay, “was really the first thing that I had to go through on my own, first.”

Catherine found a lump in her breast in late 2008. An initial biopsy suggested it was benign, and she was told to return in three months.

“I was obsessed with it,” she said. “I don’t know. I just had this feeling.”

By February 2009, the mass had grown, and a more exacting biopsy found cancer. She had a double mastectomy the next month, and started chemotherapy the month after that. She was 44 when she was diagnosed. Her daughters, now teenagers, were 8 and 11.

It was around that time all four DuBay sisters sought genetic testing. Both Catherine and Ann were found to have a mutation in the BRCA1 gene that puts them at high risk for breast and ovarian cancers. Their mother, they figure, and cousin, too, probably had the same mutation. One of the cousin’s two sisters tested positive, as well.

When Catherine had breast reconstruction surgery in August 2009, she had her ovaries removed as a preventive measure. She’s now past five years, cancer-free.

By a coincidence of scheduling, Ann had surgery the same day in 2009 for removal of her ovaries and uterus, diminishing her risk for both reproductive cancers and for breast cancer.

She intended eventually to have a double mastectomy but “felt like I had a little breathing room” because of the earlier surgery.

A sister’s diagnosis

In early 2013, Ann and her cousin were talking about the likelihood of having mastectomies in the coming year. Before either could pursue the surgery, they both were diagnosed with breast cancer, three months apart. Ann was diagnosed in June of that year, underwent six months of chemotherapy and had her breasts removed in January. Her last surgery, for reconstruction, was five months ago.

Her husband, Jeremy Olsan, an attorney, said the news of his wife’s cancer was terrifying. Like Catherine’s, Ann’s was what’s called Triple-Negative, eliminating certain targeted therapies from the treatment protocols.

But Ann, by nature “steady and deliberate and calm,” Olsan said, viewed it as a problem to solve, and set about doing that - predictably, her sisters say.

That she could feel her lump diminish in size as she went through chemotherapy, gave her confidence, Ann said. It was gone by the time of her surgery.

“She’s so pragmatic and so strong anyway,” Carol DuBay said.

Ann DuBay says she benefited from the example set by her youngest sister and by their mother. “They both were very optimistic, very upbeat,” she said.

Both sisters said they also learned how - at least, temporarily - to say “no” to invitations and obligations, carving out space and time to gather strength, and to give into feeling unwell, when that’s what was needed.

Mathewson had a hunch that a good ale might help with his wife’s nausea when nothing else did - and it worked, in small amounts. A growler from the Russian River Brewery arrived in time for each chemo treatment, first for Catherine, and a few years later, for Ann.

Friends and family helped with meals and chores, ferrying kids around and getting the sisters to their treatments.

“I don’t look back on it as a time of sadness,” Catherine DuBay said. “I look back on it as a time of rest.”

Ann said she came to rely on visits by a close friend - a non-runner - who nonetheless came twice a week to run with Ann, and sometimes, walk.

“That was a great gift,” she said. “It was therapeutic, both physically and emotionally.”

“I can’t even imagine how my mom did it,” said Ann, noting her mom, a third-grade teacher, worked full time, cooked and managed a household, and never let on she felt sick, even though anti-nausea drugs and medicine, generally, were not as advanced. “I wish I was able to talk to her now.”

But she and her sister admit their determination to learn to do less has so far failed - a refrain Ann said she heard repeatedly among survivors gathered for the Catwalk for a Cure fundraiser last week.

“We all thought we would make really significant changes in our lives,” she said. “We all fell right back into our old habits.”

Catherine said the recognition that her girls - Melanie, 16, and Mackenzie, 13 - will be leaving home in just a few years has shifted her focus somewhat, at least. Yes, she’s too busy, but to the extent it’s possible, it’s because she’s involved with them, their schools and their sports teams, she said.

Helping others

As cancer survivors, she and Ann also are called upon from time to time to offer advice, or at least assurances, to others confronting the disease. And they’re happy to help.

“I know that other people were there for me,” said Ann.

Catherine, whose high-profile post at the gym and open manner of dealing with her disease made her experience somewhat public, said folks routinely knock on her office door to ask if she has a second. “And they close the door, and I know they want to talk about cancer,” she said.

Everyone, Ann said, has a story “about a sister, a friend, a wife” - an experience, both sisters understand, that can be worse than having cancer yourself.

“I now know it’s much easier to be the one going through it than to watch your sister,” Catherine said.

“I was more scared when she had it then when I had it myself,” said Ann. “When you’re going through it yourself, you’re just taking it one step at a time, and saying, ‘OK. This is doable.’”

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com.