Overcoming Cancer Through Tennis

At the start of 2020, Adult League player Val Swan was the healthiest she’d ever been. 

After suffering from autoimmune diseases for much of her life, she finally felt like she was past them and living. She’d rediscovered tennis after a nearly 20-year absence, which was also doing wonders for her health. She was in the best shape of her life and had even inadvertently lost weight. 

Coincidentally, seven years prior, Swan, who is adopted, had connected with her birth mother who sought her out because of their family medical history. Swan learned the BRCA1 gene mutation, a common cause of hereditary breast cancer, runs in their family and since then had done preventative self-checks with mammograms every six months with another coming up. 

“We just didn’t think I would have anything because I’d already had these major autoimmune struggles,” she recalled. “I did kind of know that was on one side of my family, but I wasn’t worried about it whatsoever.”

But before she could make it to that appointment, seemingly overnight Swan developed symptoms. 

“All of a sudden I had pain and swelling,” she said. “We thought I had an infection.”

She went in to see her doctor on February 12th, 2020. And while a follow up diagnostic visit was scheduled, her doctor also thought it wasn’t cause for alarm. On Valentine’s Day, Swan had biopsies taken and then had to wait through the weekend to hear the results. 

On the following Monday, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. 

It was an unexpected blow that felt doubly unfair to her and her family given her age and that she’d already conquered health issues. On top of that, she was diagnosed as the coronavirus pandemic began, meaning she would be going through the process largely alone. 

“I’d just caught my breath,” she said. “I was just now finally getting to do things that I love and rekindle my passions. And then I’m like you’ve got to be kidding me right [laughs]?” 

Swan started five months of progressive chemotherapy on March 11th and then had four weeks to decide how to proceed next before undergoing a double mastectomy on Labor Day, with six weeks of radiation following that. 

Complicating matters was that Swan had what is known as triple negative breast cancer, meaning the form of cancer she had did not have any of the three receptors commonly found in breast cancer. That gave doctors fewer options with which to attack the disease. 

Swan was told treatment for triple negative cancer had a 30 percent success rate. She wound up with a complete pathologic response, the best possible outcome, as this signals the disappearance of signs of cancer in response to treatment. 

In more ways than one, tennis is what got her through cancer before, during, and after. 

“I am so grateful for tennis,” she said. “I could not have imagined needing it, but what a gift it was to get me through this time.”

In a sense, Swan was connected to tennis before she even knew it. Her birth father was a professional player at one point. Without being physically connected, Swan and her father shared that thread as she took up tennis in the seventh grade, was the No. 2 singles player on her high school team, and went on to play two years at the University of Rochester. 

During that time in college, she was still struggling with Crohn's Disease, which she’d had since she was a child, and in 1998 decided to focus on her education and transfer to a larger school. She continued to play intramurals, but that was when tennis got put on hold. 

Swan had planned to move to the Bay Area in her twenties, but still battling Crohn's Disease and its complications, wound up not being able to until 17 years later. She moved with the intention of picking up three passions that she hadn’t been able to pursue in the intervening years: writing, music, and tennis. 

Two years prior to being diagnosed, Swan joined Chabot Canyon Racquet Club near her home. It took time, but by the time of her diagnosis, tennis and a dietary change here and there had left Swan the healthiest she’d ever been. Her oncologist told her during their first meeting that all of her efforts with tennis to reclaim her health had put her in the best possible position going into treatment. 

“We credit me being really healthy and well to that success because it’s so hard going through chemo that if your body can’t keep up with it, you don’t respond well,” she explained. “I had two blood transfusions, but I managed to get through treatment very well and we credit that to my health. And tennis was the number one thing.”

Her tennis community was just as important throughout her treatment. 

“I feel like tennis has been there for me, really,” she said. “This has been a gift of community. I’m honestly very grateful for tennis.”

A meal train was organized so Swan was able to eat healthy while her energy was low during chemotherapy. Another team captain shared a story of someone she knew playing through chemotherapy, which gave Swan the encouragement to continue playing. Friends contributed to a GoFundMe when Swan lost her job due to the pandemic. 

Though the bad luck of getting cancer in 2020 meant Swan was isolated when it came to things like going alone to the hospital, tennis being socially distant allowed her to stay connected to her community. 

“I was able to participate in the sport I played because it kept me safe,” she said, adding that staying active with tennis also staved off some side effects of chemotherapy like neuropathy. 

Swan even played a round robin tournament in the East Bay after she finished chemotherapy. 

Completely healthy today, Swan has an even greater appreciation for tennis and community than before. She’s back to playing tennis and captaining an Adult Leagues team at Chabot Canyon, which she jokes is what’s actually killing her. She’s rebranded her consulting business and is more conscious of taking on work that’s personal to her. Having already begun pursuing her passion for writing before cancer, she’s further invigorated to finish her memoir on serving childhood illness - albeit with a chapter or two to add now. 

“I always knew life was short because I was so ill all my life and I’ve had several death bed moments,” she said. “You can’t just do a liquid diet and get over cancer. You don’t know if treatment is going to work and you don’t know if it’s going to recur.”

“We don’t have all day here. You wait until you’re grown up to do whatever. But no, you have to do it now. Now’s the time.”