STILL LOOKING AHEAD

Shannon West is a study in looking on the bright side.

Not long after the 40-year-old discovered a lump in her right breast upon stepping out of the shower one day in December, after learning she would need an immediate double mastectomy, followed by chemotherapy and radiation and maybe even a hysterectomy, she was finding small ways to laugh and celebrate again.

She threw a premastectomy "going away" party for her breasts, complete with all her friends and a big "boob cake."

She talked about how lucky she was that her surgery coincided with March Madness; she could watch her fill of NCAA games while recovering at home.

And she looked forward to wig shopping in preparation for losing all her hair; it would give her a chance to try out different looks each day at her job as regional homeless services coordinator for Clark County.

"I have a really positive attitude," West said Tuesday morning while resting in her Henderson condominium before heading to yet another doctor's appointment. "I was able to deal with this with humor, but I know not everybody can do that. Everyone has to figure out their own way, what will work for them."

That attitude doesn't surprise West's colleagues in the homeless services world, where she has gained a reputation over her more than two years at the job for being both a fighter and a uniter.

Her position entails figuring out the wisest way to spend money designated for fighting homelessness, coordinating homeless outreach efforts in local jurisdictions, and sometimes trudging through homeless encampments trying to talk people into shelters.

She has been credited with helping make friends of valley homeless services providers who sometimes engaged in turf wars.

"We needed someone who could really corral and bring everyone together, that's Shannon's strength," said West's supervisor, Clark County Assistant Manager Darryl Martin.

Linda Lera-Randle El, director of the Straight from the Streets homeless outreach program, said West is part of the reason she decided to join a pioneering coalition of local agencies designed to get "chronic" homeless people off the streets for good.

"Shannon rolled up her sleeves," she said. "She didn't try to hide her cell phone number. She'll put on her heels for meetings, but is willing to take them off to hike over the dirt to a homeless encampment."

Phillip Hollon, director of residential services for Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada, said West never gives up.

"Shannon's a very strong individual," he said. "She continues to persist and push for the rights of the homeless. She's a fighter. She's been able to demonstrate that in her profession, and she now needs to do it in her own life."

West has been off the job since her surgery and breast reconstruction on March 10. She'll begin chemotherapy treatments in a few days, but plans to get back to work part-time as soon as this week.

She said the concern shown by friends and co-workers has kept her going.

"The amount of love and support people have given me, the whole homeless world, has been amazing," she said. "My whole house was full of flowers. I can feel how many people are praying for me and care about me."

West said she hasn't had a whole lot of time to reflect on her illness.

"It's more like, OK, what do we have to do now?" she said. "The only time I really cried was when I called my mom and said, 'I think I really have cancer.'"

West cried again on Tuesday as she listened to her mother talk about how it felt to learn that her daughter was sick.

"This is something you never want your daughter to go through," Susan West said. "It was devastating to our family. But her strength, her courage, will see her through this. She's an amazing girl, always has been."

Susan West is herself a breast cancer survivor, and has always emphasized the importance of self exams to her two daughters. Susan West's mother died of breast cancer.

Because of the family's history, Shannon West's doctor decided she should undergo testing to see if she is a carrier of a breast cancer gene mutation. The results were troubling; West was found to carry the gene mutation.

Now Susan West is awaiting the results of her own test. Both she and her daughter grew somber on Tuesday as Dr. Lawrence Gardner told them that other family members should be tested.

"Your siblings and their female children," Gardner told Shannon West in one of his exam rooms next to Sunrise Hospital Medical Center on Maryland Parkway. "If any are found to be carrying the gene," they should get mastectomies.

Gardner also said if relatives are found to be carriers, they should take that into consideration when planning their families, perhaps considering adoption.

West had already been told her chances of contracting ovarian cancer were heightened, and so she decided that she will eventually have a full hysterectomy.

It was hard to come to terms with.

Though West, who is single, wasn't sure she would have children, at least the option was there.

"Taking away that option was tough for me when I heard it," she said. "It's someone telling you you're not going to have kids. I didn't expect to get as upset about it as I did."

But West has accepted it and is focusing her energies instead on getting healthy.

"What's one year that I need to get healthy?" she said. "A year is a long snapshot of time, a process, instead of focusing on, 'Today was terrible.'"

But West admits some aspects of her illness still take getting used to.

"You don't realize how attached you are to your boobs until you lose them," she said, smiling wistfully. "The day that I both don't have boobs and don't have hair, what will that day feel like?"

Gardner says that every patient goes through the five stages of grief when faced with the loss of a body part.

"Some of them do it right before your eyes," he said. "Some are in denial; they say they'll get checked right after their vacation. Everybody cries. And everybody comes out of the tunnel at the end."

Gardner emphasized that most breast cancers are curable.

Those who know West are confident she'll win her battle with cancer.

They're also not surprised that she has been so open about her illness.

"It takes an amazing person to look outside yourself when you're sick and share," said Lera-Randle El. "If you see a person who faces adversity openly, that's a selfless thing; you know they'll make a change in the community."

"Now that she's surviving, this (cancer awareness) is another cause she'll take under her belt," Martin said. "She'll do that well, too."

"I didn't want to hide the fact I had cancer," West said. "I want to tell people, 'You can make it through this.'"

She has no doubt that she'll be one of the survivors.

"I knew right away I wasn't going to die," she said. "I have a lot of things to do."

Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis @reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0285.