Crystal Lake cancer survivor recognized at Bears home game

Before the Chicago Bears started their home-opener against the Tennessee Titans Sunday, a giant “Bear Down” flag was unfurled by dozens of people on field at Soldier Field. One of them was cancer survivor and Crystal Lake resident Julie Hermann.

“We were right next to where the players were coming out,” she said.

Hermann was recognized as the Bears’ special guest for its Bear Down ceremony for her fight against Stage 3C breast cancer that was diagnosed last year. Her nurses at Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital outside Barrington nominated her to be a Chicago Bears special guest, which came to Hermann as a “great surprise.” The Bears won the game 24-17.

“It made it even more special having that comeback at the second half,” she said.

Hermann, who is a mother of two teenage sons, noticed a lump in her armpit and figured it was a swollen lymph node from being sick about a year ago. She doesn’t have a family history of breast cancer and always went to regularly scheduled mammograms, according to an Advocate Health Care news release.

“I honestly thought there couldn’t be anything wrong with me. ... Now I tell my friends who do breast self-exams to check their armpits, too,” Hermann said in the release. “If my story can help, I want to share it.”

After a biopsy confirmed her diagnosis, Hermann went through 16 rounds of chemotherapy. Her faith, family and friends helped her battle cancer, she said. Friends provided meals for her family and her mom also helped out while Hermann went through weeks of chemotherapy.

“I could not have gotten through it without faith,” she said. Hermann hopes her story encourages women to do regular self-exams, including under their arms.

“I hope people realize you don’t have to fight cancer alone,” she said. “I met some amazing people that are fighting right beside me.”

Now, Hermann is finishing radiation therapy later this month and is looking forward to go back to work as an analyst and the director of her church’s choir.

“You live your life a little differently after something like this,” she said. “I’ll be living my life to the fullest, for sure.”