After a traumatic past year and a half, taking her two dogs for a walk on a warm summer day is something Carmen Scheffer will never take for granted.
“We were absolutely flabbergasted. You never think it’s going to happen to you,” Scheffer said.
The 35-year-old who is from Australia came to Canada in 2014 to study at the University of Manitoba. That’s where she fell in love with Zach Wenstob.
“I had to move back to Australia to finish my degree and then in 2019, I came back to Manitoba to be with my now fiance,” Scheffer said.
The two began their lives together, purchasing dogs, getting engaged and buying a house.
Then in December 2023, everything changed.
“I noticed a very faint bruise. It was really small. On the right side of my calf. I didn’t think anything of it,” Scheffer said.
She was a healthy woman in her early 30s who walked 10,000 steps a day and ate well.
But over the next eight weeks, that ‘bruise’ turned into a large, bleeding tumour. Scheffer says she was dismissed by doctors over and over again.
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“It looked like it was spreading. You could visibly see it,” Scheffer said.
One doctor finally took her concerns seriously. A different specialist diagnosed her with angiosarcoma, a rare and aggressive cancer.
Scheffer says she needed three different scans before she could be admitted to Cancer Care, but sat waiting for weeks.
“When you know that this thing can literally spread to your lungs in a day, in a matter of hours, just being told you have to wait was gut-wrenching. I can’t even tell you the level of stress I went though,” Scheffer said.
She made the heartbreaking decision to leave her fiancé, dogs, home and job behind and seek medical care in Sydney, Australia.
“Within the first week of landing back in Australia, I had all of my scans done, an appointment with an oncologist who already had a full treatment plan waiting for me and I was starting chemo the next week,” Scheffer said.
But the cancer had spread, and doctors recommended an above-knee amputation.
“The time that I had waited in Manitoba, the damage had already been done to my leg. It was unsalvageable,” Scheffer said.
On Nov. 1, 2024, Scheffler rang the bell, indicating she was officially cancer free.
In a statement, a spokesperson for health minister Uzoma Asagwara said “(W)e can’t speak to an individual’s particular case, we can say there are no delays in getting the treatment you need when you need it. Due to the number of variables of treating cancer (type, stage, other health conditions, etc.) treatment wait times vary patient to patient. Treatment decisions are made in consultation between patients and their Cancer Care team.”
Global News also asked Shared Health about delays in cancer treatment. They deferred their response to the province.
For Scheffer, she is quickly approaching the one year anniversary since her amputation. She has two messages for Manitobans.
“Seek medical attention when you notice any type of pain, any lump, bump or bruise that doesn’t want to go away,” Scheffer said.
Her second message is to encourage Manitobans to donate to the Terry Fox Foundation. Fox had the same type of cancer as her.
As for the future, Scheffer has lots to look forward to now. She’s captaining a team in this year’s Terry Fox run, renovating her house and finally planning a wedding.
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