It’s the first day of spring semester 2024 and crowded into the AP Capstone room is a mix of 30 sophomores and juniors, some with fresh winter-break tans, others with new clothes and iPhones from their Christmas hauls, all staring at their teacher.
“I have breast cancer,” Mrs. Erin Burkamp said.
Two years ago, over winter break, Burkamp was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma, the most common type of breast cancer, two months after discovering a lump during her scheduled mammogram screening.
“The first thing you think when you have cancer, your mind immediately goes to, ‘is this it, am I going to die?’” Burkamp said.
Burkamp had to have conversations with each of her classes after her diagnosis, revealing her cancer and her treatment.
“I knew that the treatment plan was going to make me lose my hair,” Burkamp said. “It was going to be very obvious what was going on, so I had to tell my students.”
Early-stage breast cancer treatment is a grueling process. Chemotherapy, one of the processes that Burkamp went through, targets both the healthy and cancerous cells, causing side effects that can have a huge impact on the patient’s life.
“I began my treatment in January of 2024 with five months of chemotherapy, followed by surgery and then radiation and targeted therapy,” Burkamp said. “In total, my treatment was one year.”
Teachers have to be there for their students’ emotional needs while taking care of themselves. But while many teachers find difficulty in this, Burkamp found it to be helpful.
“I was surprised, I don’t know why, at how kind the students were,” Burkamp said. “Many of them had family members who had gone through a cancer story, some of them even went through one themselves. It was difficult to tell them, but it was a lesser deal because of how kind they were.”
Senior Aditi Nagunoori took Burkamp’s class as a sophomore in the 2023-2024 school year, and was there for Burkamp sharing her diagnosis of breast cancer.
“It was really difficult to see that she was physically struggling,” Nagunoori said. “But she never portrayed it like that. She was always very persevering and she never let it affect the class.”
Junior Tanya Kuriakose took AP seminar and remembers Burkamp going through her treatment and remission while teaching the class.
“The class all thought she was really strong,” Kuriakose said. “It didn’t change our perspective of her as a teacher at all, if anything we thought of her more highly. We just loved her as a teacher overall, and I loved her class.”
From the support that she experienced from her diagnosis to the support she continues to receive after being declared cancer-free, Carroll’s community has helped Burkamp in her health journey.
“At the Pink Out game, the ladies who walked with me to be recognized as breast cancer survivors were women of all different ages and backgrounds, and made me realize just how widespread this illness is,” Burkamp said. “It affects one in eight women, and I hope that through organizations and drives like ‘Pink Out’, money and attention can be directed towards further research and support for breast cancer.”
Burkamp’s journey didn’t just affect her for a few months, but is something that will remain with her for the rest of her life.
“I realized that I’m much stronger than I ever imagined that I could be,” Burkamp said. “I’m much more patient and understanding now than I think I was before, and I’m a lot kinder to myself.
On Oct. 17, Carroll hosted the annual October ‘Pink Out’ football game and corresponding fundraisers. Prior to kickoff, an on-field ceremony was held to honor breast cancer survivors and 18 survivors of breast cancer walked onto the field in order to show solidarity in their fight against the disease. The attendees in the stands were encouraged to wear pink to show support for the fight against breast cancer.
“I would like to thank the CISD community as a whole for continuing to recognize the cause and necessity to continue breast cancer research,” Burkamp said.
If you’d like more information on how to support breast cancer research visit NationalBreastCancer.org.
