Husband and wife both survive cancer in their twenties

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Breast cancer is unfortunately common among women, with about one in eight at risk of developing the disease in her lifetime, according to the American Cancer Society. However, one woman in Louisville is sharing her uncommon journey with the disease.

Shannon McKenna is a clinical nurse with Norton Cancer Institute (NCI) in Louisville. She works with glioblastoma and breast cancer patients who are undergoing clinical trials at NCI.

“I’m pretty sure very few of them know that I have fought the same battle that they are currently fighting. I don’t hide it from any of them, but also it’s about them. It’s not about me,” McKenna said.

McKenna has been fighting triple-negative and HER2-positive breast cancer for two-and-a-half-years, since she was 28-years-old.

“So. if they have any treatment related questions, I feel like I can provide some pretty expert advice for a lot of the stuff that they’re going through,” she smiled.

The oncologist she works with on breast cancer trials, Dr. Laila Agrawal, says McKenna’s strength is inspiring to everyone who knows what she’s battling.

“I think the way Shannon has faced all this and how she has shown such an inspirational story is such a testament to you know what people can come through,” Dr. Agrawal said. “Being diagnosed with breast cancer in your 20s is very rare, but it happens, and Shannon’s story is such a good message about how important it is to be aware of your body and to be able to recognize and bring any concerns to medical attention.”

However, McKenna’s story is only one part of the story. Her love story with her husband, Kris Cowan, makes her cancer journey even more rare.

The pair met when they were teenagers at a summer camp in Louisville. They immediately fell for each other, but were long distance, living on opposite sides of the state for years throughout high school and college.

In 2016, the pair finally got to live in the same place in Louisville.

“Everything was just on this wonderful high,” Cowan said of that time. “We were just having so much fun.”

However, not long after, their world would be rocked when Cowan went to the doctor in 2018 for what he thought was just a strain. His doctor performed a testicular exam and immediately sent him to have imaging done.

“Three days later, I was meeting a surgeon and being told they thought it was testicular cancer, and then the very next morning, I’m having emergency surgery,” Cowan recalled. “It hit pretty hard to be diagnosed at 23-years-old. And to be told the word, ‘cancer,’ that six letter word is always a very scary word.”

The couple got through that scary time together, though. McKenna took leave to take care of her then-boyfriend, and Cowan fought through chemo and several complications, eventually being declared cancer-free.

They planned to get married after that, but COVID-19 repeatedly pushed back their wedding date.

Then, on the three-year anniversary of Cowan’s diagnosis, McKenna felt a lump the size of a golf ball.

“When I was in the shower, I was doing my normal routine and stumbled across it,” she recalled, after explaining she hadn’t been checking her breasts monthly. “And, I know I’m supposed to be doing regular breast exams, but I was 28, and I had no family history.”

Two weeks later, she would start chemotherapy for stage 3 breast cancer.

The couple held an impromptu backyard wedding a week after she started chemo treatments.

“I remember vividly my dad saying, ‘You need to marry this man,’ and, so, I did. And I think everybody knew that my prognosis was guarded. And so, he makes me happy, and he took care of me, and I took care of him, and we already did the in sickness and in health thing, so we might as well make it official,” McKenna smiled.

One of the most important parts of the wedding day for McKenna was getting to wear her mom’s veil. That wouldn’t have been possible even a day later, because her hair began falling out the very next morning.

McKenna would complete 16 rounds of chemo, 30 rounds of radiation and have a double mastectomy, along with a year of undergoing a year of targeted therapy and a year of oral chemo.

“There is a lot of faith that you have to have with a diagnosis like this, and I cannot help but think that we were brought together for this, and I was made to be a nurse for this,” she said.

As a nurse helping fellow breast cancer patients, she strives to be a walking example for them.

“I don’t have a left breast,” McKenna explained. “My right breast is an implant, but my left breast implant failed. My radiation damage was too severe that my skin could not hold it, and, so, I do not wear prosthetics at work. I think that it’s really important to show people that it’s okay to walk around like this, and that people like me exist.”

This year, McKenna celebrated how far she’s come in her fight against breast cancer by walking in the Kentucky Oaks Survivors Parade. She had originally been diagnosed with the disease on Oaks Day in 2021, so she says it was wonderful to get to celebrate her progress on the anniversary of her diagnosis.

McKenna and Cowan both plan to continue being outspoken about their story, to bring awareness to the fact that young people are diagnosed with cancer, too, and to encourage others with the disease.

“I think that making people aware that you are here and you are thriving, but your cancer is still a part of your life—it just brings more awareness and makes people know that, like, ‘Hey, we need more treatment options because there’s a lot of life that we have left, and we deserve as much time as the next person.’ And, hopefully with all the research that we’re doing, we’ll be able to get more Oaks Days and more weddings and more birthdays, and, you know, one day, maybe we’ll finally be able to take a honeymoon,” McKenna laughed.

McKenna got to take her last dose of oral chemo on Tuesday, Oct. 17.

She didn’t expect to live to see 30, however McKenna will turn 31 on Sunday, Oct. 22.

She has a couple of appointments scheduled with surgeons soon, and as long as she gets the all-clear, she and Cowan will get to go on their honeymoon.

While McKenna has always worked as a nurse for Norton Healthcare, Cowan also got a job with Norton Research Institute’s marketing team after he went into remission. In his job, he gets to alert cancer patients to a lot of the incredible clinical trials that his wife and her team work on. Both Cowan and McKenna were treated for their cancers at Norton and get to give back to other cancer patients within the same health care system.