Bootcamp Fundraiser for Hawley Elementary School Teacher, Stephanie Dunshee

Total Performance Sports & Fitness in Newtown is holding bootcamps to raise funds for Stephanie Dunshee, a Hawley Elementary School teacher who is battling stage IV breast cancer.

The bootcamps will run through June 2, and the schedule is below. First, here's Stephanie's story, in her own words:

My Luck   

By Stephanie Dunshee

I always joke that I am the most unlucky person you will ever meet.

I will not bore you with all the stories of bad luck, but bear with me while I share a few.

When I was thirteen, my mother ran over my foot with the car. When I was eighteen, I finally had my deviated septum fixed (okay, it was a good reason to “fix” my nose) and six months later I got smacked in the face with a basketball. I now have what my doctor describes as an "S" shape in my nose (so I still can’t breathe well), and a lovely bump protrudes from the left side of my nose (so much for that "perfect" nose).

When I was 21, I got in a car accident driving my grandmother to Grandparent’s Day at the school where I was student teaching. At 24, I contracted viral encephalitis and was hospitalized for three weeks. I lost my ability to speak and write for a number of months. When I finally recovered, I crashed my Mitsubishi Eclipse into a Ford 350.

My wedding was postponed and then cancelled due to a huge misunderstanding. Two years later, after reconciling with my now husband, I got engaged. A month and a half before the wedding, I fell playing softball (which I never should have been doing since sports and I don’t mix). I fractured my shoulder and was in a sling right up until the wedding.

Three days after the wedding I totaled my Eclipse for good (I promise I am a good driver, I will not get into how I keep getting into accidents).

Just when it seemed I would have my happily ever after — I just had my first child, we just bought a house, everything was going wonderfully — I started to feel a pain under my right arm. And shortly thereafter I was diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer.

My son was 4 months old. My world came crashing down. In those first few days after the diagnosis, we received one piece of bad news after another.

It was clear. I had the worst luck. 

But looking back, I realize that, although I felt unlucky, maybe I was the luckiest girl in the world. I know that may seem a stretch, but let me explain.

When I was a junior in college, I was sitting in the cafeteria eating breakfast when my eyes locked with a pair of bright blue eyes. I invited Blue Eyes to sit with me, and our love story began and continues to this day.

October 2, 1999 will always be the day that God gave me someone that would always be there to hold my hand, hold my heart, and carry me when I felt like I couldn’t do it anymore.

Through everything bad that happened, I always knew in my heart Blue Eyes would be there if I needed him. And through this diagnosis, there has not been one time where he has wavered in his love and support.

So that makes me pretty lucky. And my son, my beautiful miracle baby. Blue eyes and I almost put off having a child for a year before finally deciding to start our family early.

I, luckily, got pregnant on the first try, and luckily it was an easy pregnancy. Maybe I remember incorrectly, but I remember loving every minute of it. There were no complications with the delivery, and at the end of all of it, I had a healthy 10 lb baby boy.

If we had waited the year, there is a good chance I would not have my son.

I was told after my diagnosis that I should not have any more children. So I look at Gabriel, my little angel, every day and know that he was meant to be in my life. I was meant to be his mother. And that makes me the luckiest girl in the world. 

It would be easy to let myself wallow in all that I may not be able to do. To throw myself daily pity parties and give up on life. After all, the thought of all the dreams I will never see come true is constantly on my mind. But as easy as that would be, it wouldn’t help me or my family.

So I am going to choose to find the luck that I have experienced in my life. I am going to search out all the memories I have of happiness and love. And I am going to write them down, so that when I want to throw that pity party (which by the way I feel I am entitled to once in awhile) I can look back on how lucky I really am.

I want Gabe and Bob and my family and friends to know how much they mean to me — how they have touched my life. I want to let them know that they are the ones who make me lucky, who help me see the sun shining through the clouds.

So this is my attempt to write down how I feel, to share stories that I want to remember, to show my family and friends that they are my heroes, my angels, my luck.

The Bootcamp Fundraiser Schedule

Mondays/Wednesdays

• 9:30-10:30   
• 4:30-5:30   
• 6:30-7:30   

• 10:30-11:30  

• 8:00-9:15
• 1:00-2:15  

• 2:00-3:15