RHS counselor Emily Rion was diagnosed with stage one breast cancer in mid-July when completing her routine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Her genetic mutation called CHEK2, which doubles the risk of breast cancer, cautioned Rion to have regular MRIs for seven years to detect any signs of cancer occurring. After her annual screenings, the clinic called her back in for a biopsy and that is when she had a feeling that she had cancer and it had caught up to her. Rion met with teams of surgeons from the clinic to stay ahead of her illness once she was officially diagnosed. She notified RHS Principal Doug Faris about her condition and announced her illness to the community to find herself a temporary work replacement. Revere provided support to Rion during this hard time and attended to the work that needed to be done because of her absence.

Revere High School (RHS) supports and welcomes back one of its guidance counselors after her battle with breast cancer, which caused her to miss the start of the 2024 school year. Rion’s position is more than a job to her and the way everyone supported her as she returned to school shows that her constant preaching of kind words and support has had an impact on those around her. Rion explains how much this community means to her.

“[The community was] incredible to me. Mr. Faris has been an incredible support to me. Our central office staff, which includes our administration, has been exceptional to me, supportive, checking in with me, making sure that we had as much coverage as we could in our office here, which was very hard because this type of role is very unique,” Rion said.

Shortly after Rion’s diagnosis of breast cancer, she scheduled a double mastectomy on July 30. Recovering was a lot to take on, which caused her to not be able to move her arms and lose some of her physical strength, but never her mental strength. Rion continued to stay active while she was away from school because she knew she had to focus on herself and get better before she could get back to her students and her work.

“I think about this place all the time. And when I say this place, I mean my students. So that part will always be a challenge for me; however, I knew that in order to get back to my students I had to focus on my health. I had to go through the intense physical therapy [and] the intense occupational therapy. . . . I still have physical limitations where I can’t, like I used to be able to move this desk wherever I want to, now I can’t, but I will eventually,” Rion said.

Rion ensures everything runs smoothly for students and their schedules. That did not change even when she was sick and was not able to physically be at school; she provided aid from home for school events and transitions. Rion continued to stay involved with her students and in contact with her co-adviser of student council, Beth D’Amico, to feel like she was benefiting the club from home.

“I still did behind the scene student council stuff. I would talk with Mrs. D’Amico almost weekly. I tried to help out as much as I could with getting our Google Docs out for homecoming voting, getting decorations on Amazon for homecoming. Stuff that wasn’t too much, but enough to help me feel like I’m still involved,” Rion said.

Faris expressed how difficult it was to see a trusted coworker and friend become sick, but also how empowering it was to see Rion overcome it. Faris found it difficult to find a long-term sub to fill Rion’s shoes so shortly before school started.

“There were other people supporting her left and right. It was really powerful and it made me so proud to work for Revere, to watch us, like we support kids all day long, but to watch us support a colleague going through something, it was pretty powerful. . . .  It was so difficult and we didn’t have a ton of applicants because counselors are in such demand,” Faris said.

Rion’s absence impacted the students she cares for too in a very emotional way and students talk very highly of Rion. RHS senior Abby Thomas expressed how she felt when Rion announced she was sick.

“I just felt really bad because she’s such a sweet person and she has such a good heart. . . . She genuinely cares about her students and wants the best for them,” Thomas said.

Rion now realizes that people understand how hard she is trying to get things back to normal, but it takes time. She prioritizes her health so much more now and has found a balance between her work and health. Rion is giving herself some grace and taking every day as slow as she needs to.

“What I didn’t finish here today will still be here tomorrow and people will understand, ‘She can’t work until 8 p.m., 10 p.m. at night.’ . . . I feel like what kind of used to bring me more anxiety about not getting everything perfectly done doesn’t weigh me down anymore because I’m still doing the best that I can,” Rion said.

Rion feels incredibly blessed to have the knowledge of her family’s history so that she can stay on top of her cancer. Rion could not imagine the outcome of her illness if she had not had her routine screenings or had not taken the proper prevention measures knowing her genetic mutation’s risks.

“The message that I send to anybody is that if you know of anything in your family history, or if you know of anything in your health history that you can start preventing, do it. . . . I applaud myself for being [strong] even though it was scary to go through all of the testing for years and always holding my breath. Like what am I going to have? Am I gonna have cancer with this next screening or not? I still did it because I knew that I had to,” Rion said.

Rion has a quote from Hoda Kotb that got her through her cancer battle and it is something that sticks with her to this day, “Your life is about to get a whole lot better. There’s life before cancer and life after. I am here to tell you your second life is going to be so much better than the first. A funny thing happened as my body started to heal — my mind did as well.”

This story was originally published on Lantern on October 23, 2024.