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Published October 14, 2008 12:13 am - CARL JUNCTION, Mo. — The day Sharon Clark, Carl Junction postmaster, found out she was pregnant was simultaneously the best and worst day of her life. Think pink: Efforts to raise awareness of breast cancer under way By Melissa Dunson
mdunson@joplinglobe.com CARL JUNCTION, Mo. — The day Sharon Clark, Carl Junction postmaster, found out she was pregnant was simultaneously the best and worst day of her life. She had been trying to have a child for nine years and had finally conceived. Doctors also told her she had stage-three cervical cancer. She was 27 years old. Doctors told her that if she did not abort the baby boy, he would be born with severe disabilities, and she would never live to see him grow up. It was the beginning of many “worst” days. “It was a roller-coaster ride,” Clark said. “One day I would be glad I made the decision to continue the pregnancy; the next day I’d wonder if I made the right decision. When the baby started moving, I tried not to get excited, because I knew that he might die.” Clark called it a “sad pregnancy,” but she said she is glad that she listened to her heart. She gave birth to her son, Travis, now 26 years old and completely normal. She had an immediate hysterectomy and, after going through chemotherapy, made a full recovery. Five years later, Clark had another bad day. She was taking a shower when she felt a small lump in her breast. She had stage-one breast cancer. “I thought, ‘No, oh no,’” she said. But Clark said surgery and radiation therapy saved her life. And now, she wants to raise money to help fund the research for the cancer treatments of tomorrow, all in an effort to prevent even one more person from having one of those bad days. “I have two granddaughters, a daughter-in-law and a stepdaughter,” Clark said. “If we raise enough money to save one life, and that life is someone I love, it’s all worth it.” Pink pledge October is national Breast Cancer Awareness Month. To raise awareness of the disease that tried to take her life, Clark, now 51, has decorated the Carl Junction post office with all the pink she can find, and she is challenging the Joplin area to buy $10,000 worth of pink-ribbon breast-cancer-awareness stamps from her office by the end of October. The stamps are slightly more expensive than regular stamps, and that additional money goes to national cancer research. So far, Clark has raised $2,500 through the campaign. That’s more than she raised during the entire month of October last year, when she was postmaster at Pierce City. If she reaches her goal of $10,000, she has promised the town that she will die her blond hair pink. And she’s gotten all of the city’s top officials to join her in that pledge. 
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