Tall, lean and athletic — just by looking at Lee’s Summit resident Pam Van Compernolle one sees the poster girl for health and fitness. </p><p>But in January of 2006 at the age of 34, Van Compernolle was diagnosed with breast cancer.</p><p>“I was in awe,” Van Compernolle said about the phone call that changed her life. “I was shocked in a daze. All of the information they were telling me just went in one ear and out the other.”</p><p>Van Compernolle had been diagnosed with stage two ductal carcinoma. As part of her treatment she had eight rounds of chemotherapy a bilateral mastectomy — in which both her breasts were removed — and 33 rounds of radiation following the surgery.</p><p>“I just remember sitting in the cancer center for the first chemo treatment and it hit me. I thought ‘I’m not supposed to be here. This isn’t supposed to be me.’”</p><p>But after the first treatment and the initial shock, Van Compernolle plowed through the rest of her treatments with the determination and focus she uses in other aspects of her life — everything from turbo kickboxing to motherhood.</p><p>“Cancer is not going to be me and I’m not going to be cancer,” she said. “I’m still a mother, I’m still a wife I’m still a turbo kick-boxer girl — or whatever you want to call it. I’m not going to let this overwhelm me.” Even when Van Compernolle had the surgery to remove both her breasts, she found that she was “okay” with how she looked.</p><p>“Most women say they are afraid to look at themselves in the mirror after the surgery,” she said. “But to be honest with you, I was okay. It was definitely a shock, though.”</p><p>Van Compernolle said her reaction to her body was in part because everything had happened so fast. She said she didn’t really have time to think about it all.</p><p>But then there was a lull between the surgery and her radiation treatments. </p><p>“That’s when it all hit me,” she said. “My femininity had changed, my sexuality had changed. I wondered how my husband was going to look at me, or if he would look at me at all.” </p><p>In December Van Compernolle was tested for the BRCA gene — a gene that decidedly increases the possibilities of getting breast and ovarian cancer.</p><p>“And it was no surprise the results came back positive,” she said. “I had a strong history of cancer on my mother’s side.”</p><p>So in January of 2007, Van Compernolle had a hysterectomy to decrease her chances of ovarian cancer. “That was an emotionally difficult decision,” she said. </p><p>She was already a mother to her son Ethan Owens, but she didn’t know whether or not her and her husband Eddie Van Compernolle would want to have any children — they had gotten married the February before. A month after she received her diagnosis. </p><p>“I had my son already and I was okay with that,” she said. “On down the road I have had second thoughts about it. But I have my son and he’s the joy in my life. As long as he’s here, I’m going to be here.”</p><p>Following her hysterectomy things began to get back to “normal” for Van Compernolle. She started to get back into her fitness routine and was going pretty hard. </p><p>That’s why she didn’t think much of the pain she felt in her left hip.</p><p>But the cancer had come back. And this time, she said, it had metastasized to her pelvis, spine and liver.</p><p>“I was angry. I had done everything you are supposed to do and more. I just didn’t quite understand why,” she said.</p><p>So in April of 2008 she began another round of chemotherapy and radiation. And so far, the treatments have been successful.</p><p>“I just got my results three weeks ago,” she said. “My pelvis, liver and spine are looking clean.”</p><p>Now Van Compernolle is taking chemotherapy drugs — pills she will have to take indefinitely for at least the next couple of years.</p><p>“But I’m okay with that,” she said. “These are the cards I have been dealt, and I’m going to play them.”</p><p>And that attitude is precisely why her friend has dubbed her the “Pink Fighter Warrior Princess.”</p><p><i>To reach Journal reporter Miranda Wycoff, call 816-282-7017 or e-mail mwycoff@lsjournal.com</i>