Author Shana Bull: I Survived Cancer and Here Is How I Did It
An Interview With Savio P. Clemente
Focus on small wins post-treatment. Every time I was able to move a bit further in my daily walks, I would tell myself that it is one step at a time and I would get to my destination.
Cancer is a horrible and terrifying disease. Yet millions of people have beaten the odds and beat cancer. Authority Magazine started a new series called “I Survived Cancer and Here Is How I Did It”. In this interview series, we are talking to cancer survivors to share their stories, in order to offer hope and provide strength to people who are being impacted by cancer today. As a part of this interview series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Shana Bull.
Shana Bull is a Best-Selling Author, Freelance Writer and Marketing Educator in the East Bay, CA. She is passionate about low-alcohol wines, elaborate cheese boards, and food adventures with her family. During the summer of 2020 she was diagnosed with anal cancer and pivoted her business to focus on children’s books focusing on mental health and kids, as well as writing more about health and her cancer journey.
She was named one of North Bay Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 Professionals in the North Bay Area In 2017, one of 16 Innovative Marketers You Should Know by Linkedin Marketing in 2021, and one of Plann’s 8 Hilarious Marketers To Follow On Instagram For When You Need A Good Laugh (true story).
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! We really appreciate the courage it takes to publicly share your story. Before we start, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your background and your childhood backstory?
I grew up in Northern California, the first graduating class of a small town in the middle of wine country. My parents were divorced but they co-owned a small carpet company. My grandparents were also small business owners and lived around the corner from us for a few years.
From as young as I can remember I always wanted to work in advertising, and I wanted to be a published author. As I grew up, every job I had from Starbucks to selling knives door to door — I made it into a marketing job.
I became an entrepreneur at age 28, Consulting with hospitality businesses on social media marketing. For over twelve years I’ve been teaching classes, managing social accounts, and crafting brand strategies for marketing efforts. Just after cancer treatments at age 38, I became a published author of a children’s book called Randall the Blue Spider Goes Surfing that I co-wrote with my toddler.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
One of my favorite movies from childhood was ‘Troop Beverly Hills,’ a fish out of water type story about a mom and a group of privileged daughters of Hollywood actors, scriptwriters, plastic surgeons, authors, etc that wanted to be Wilderness Girls but didn’t fit in with what the typical Wilderness Girls Troop looked like. The mother, Phyllis Nefler, played by Shelly Long, is a socialite wife recently separated from her husband and her troop of preteen girls pushed past the stereotypes that others and themselves believed and they ended up winning the annual Wilderness Girls jamboree.
The quote, “I Am The Log. I Am The Ravine. I Am Scared,” has always stuck out to me. During the time during the Jamboree when everyone felt like they wanted to give up due to hard challenges, the mom prevailed and gave a pep-talk to all the girls to face their fears to walk over a log over a ravine.
The quote is both inspirational and a reminder that acknowledging your fears is a helpful tool in order to get over them. Simply pretending like something isn’t scary doesn’t mean it’s going to go away.
There are a lot of life lessons that I have taken from that book throughout the years. But this was one of my favorites.
Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about surviving cancer. Do you feel comfortable sharing with us the story surrounding how you found out that you had cancer?
I have had to get pretty comfortable with it over the past year, so I don’t mind. Just before the pandemic started last year, I had hemorrhoids. I put off going to the doctor because I assumed they would go away after a few weeks, like they did after my son was born four years earlier.
They didn’t.
Then the pandemic hit. I had several virtual doctor’s appointments where they tried to fix the hemorrhoid itself, and each time I told them the constant throbbing pain was getting worse. Finally, after two months of video and phone calls and begging to see someone in person, I saw a gynecologist in her office.
Instantly, she knew something was wrong. A CT scan was scheduled and several other scans over the course of a few weeks I was diagnosed with stage III anal cancer.
What was the scariest part of that event? What did you think was the worst thing that could happen to you?
When I got the call they were very quick to assure me that this type of cancer was treatable, even if it came back after remission.
How did you react in the short term?
I am a planner, so I went into research mode, trying to research everything I could about what to expect, what I needed to buy, and how to prepare. I wrote out the FAQ that I knew I would get from friends & family when I told them, along with a link to an Amazon wishlist if they asked if they could do anything for me. https://shanabull.com/blog/anal-cancer-treatment-symptoms-pain-in-the-ass
After the dust settled, what coping mechanisms did you use? What did you do to cope physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually?
I relied heavily on my friends and family online. Just before the pandemic, we actually moved about an hour south of my hometown, so we weren’t really close with our neighbors at the time. Thankfully social media and smartphones allow people to connect through video chats, and DMS in a much easier way than ever before.
I also really tried to stop searching the news, and focus on my health, easy-to-watch reality shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race & Top Chef,, and daily walks around my neighborhood.
Is there a particular person you are grateful towards who helped you learn to cope and heal? Can you share a story about that?
My two best friends live in Seattle, and they came out to visit during the early phase of my cancer treatments. Because of the pandemic, they both quarantined themselves for 2-weeks and took COVID tests before they came out. They helped get a lot of things set up for me, took my son to preschool (he did go back to school during my cancer treatments), cooked, cleaned and took me to my radiation appointments for a week.
Just having them here helped my overworked brain because I could start focusing on myself, vs everything around the house. This was definitely the first time I have done that since my son was born almost six years ago.
In my own cancer struggle, I sometimes used the idea of embodiment to help me cope. Let’s take a minute to look at cancer from an embodiment perspective. If your cancer had a message for you, what do you think it would want or say?
When I had to say goodbye to all my clients, I had nothing to occupy my time in the early stages of radiation so I asked myself what I wanted to accomplish with my life. I ended up spending time researching the world of book self-publishing and talked to a friend who released a book with an indie book publisher, East 26 Publishing. I connected with the owner, and we worked out a deal to publish a memoir of mine (still working on this) and a children’s book that I co-wrote with my son when he was only two-years-old.
In April 2020 I was able to make the children’s book a reality (randallthebluespider.com) and this wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for being focused to take time off because of my cancer. While I would never wish the pain I went through on anyone, I am excited that my story has a happy ending by fulfilling a lifelong dream of being a published author.
How have you used your experience to bring goodness to the world?
Ever since finding out about my cancer, I have told my own story to try to inspire others to listen to their bodies and seek advice from their doctors or community hospitals when they felt like something was off (especially if it is something that may be embarrassing to talk about like a literal pain in your butt). And — to keep pushing (like I had to) when tests come back negative but your body feels worse.
Health is the most important thing we can do for ourselves, mental and physical, so I plan on using the Randall the Blue Spider books to keep talking about mental health issues with kids and parents and keep using my platform to encourage adults to pay attention to their bodies and become advocates for themselves.
What are a few of the biggest misconceptions and myths out there about fighting cancer that you would like to dispel?
I don’t know if this is a myth, but I will say that once treatments are done, you still have a lot of work to do. That’s when I started focusing on working with a dietitian, acupuncture, and small steps to slowly walk to my mailbox, and then walk around the block. Even 1 year later I am still struggling to walk up hills because my muscles in my upper legs are sore.
Getting cancer doesn’t mean you should go back to unhealthy habits after your treatment is over. But it also isn’t about saying no to everything also. Moderation and understanding what foods make your body feel good are key.
Fantastic. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your experiences and knowledge, what advice would you give to others who have recently been diagnosed with cancer? What are your “5 Things You Need To Beat Cancer? Please share a story or example for each.
- A support system. For me, it was online friends and some family members who were able to go out of their way to take COVID tests and be safe to come to see me. I have also gotten a lot of advice from an anal cancer support group my doctors recommended on Facebook.
- Planning ahead. I have a day planner where I wrote down the time of all my pills and medicine. If I didn’t have that, I would have forgotten to take my medicine and been in a lot of pain.
- Ask a lot of questions at every doctor’s appointment. There are no stupid questions when it comes to your own health. Ask the nurses, the radiation techs, the doctors, etc.
- Focus on small wins post-treatment. Every time I was able to move a bit further in my daily walks, I would tell myself that it is one step at a time and I would get to my destination.
- Ask for help after treatments. I found out I had 20 free acupuncture appointments through my husband’s work insurance and I definitely took advantage of that. If he didn’t ask his company what help was available for cancer patients, we would have never known this. Find out what the hospital or the community can do to help you post-treatments.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be?
I really do want to keep telling my story because it is one of persistence, humor, and getting back up once you fall down. I want to keep creating children’s books that focus on mental health because it starts when kids are young.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them. :-)
I would say the author Judy Blume (another cancer survivor) a childhood idol of mine who inspired me to read. Or, Desperate Housewives star Marcia Cross who also had anal cancer and has been very vocal about trying to get rid of the stigma that comes with having cancer that was derived from HPV.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
I can be found on social media at @sharayray (instagram.com/sharayray) or on my blog at www.shanabull.com/blog or through my children’s book, @RandallTheBlueSpider and www.randallthebluespider.com.
Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!
Thank you!
