MOUNT VERNON — Breast cancer survivor Nancy Heerens-Knudson of Iowa City will perform her one-act play, “Busted,” which details her post-diagnosis experience, at Cornell College’s Armstrong Theatre on Tuesday, April 16, at 7:30 p.m.
Admission is free and seating is general admission. Donations will be accepted for Especially for You, a foundation that contributes money for mammograms, ultrasounds and biopsies.
Heerens-Knudson, a physician’s assistant who formerly worked in the Cornell Student Health offices, was 37 when she found a lump on her right breast. A biopsy showed that the lump was benign, but a second lump — impossible to detect during a self-exam — was discovered. Upon waking after the biopsy, she asked, “Well, was it a bust?” Those in the room laughed politely and then her husband told her the second lump was malignant.
Heerens-Knudson underwent radiation therapy, but no chemotherapy. The lumpectomy removed the cancerous tissues. One of her sisters and two aunts, one on each side of her family, were diagnosed with breast cancer. Her mother died of pancreatic cancer. Heerens-Knudson decided the only way to be sure breast cancer would not recur was to have a double mastectomy. Today, more than 15 years after she detected a lump, she is healthy.
Heerens-Knudson, who has a degree in theater from Luther College, wrote the play in summer 2001. It is directed by Kate Aspengren, a graduate of the Iowa Playwrights Workshop at the University of Iowa and a visiting instructor in Cornell’s women’s studies and theatre and communications studies departments. The performance is sponsored by Cornell’s Women’s Studies Committee and Student Health Services.