MERCER COUNTY — Some say it’s impolite to ask a lady her age, but cancer survivors Cindy Mastrian, 52, and Sue Cameron Brown, 45, don’t mind the question at all.

“Once you’ve had breast cancer, every birthday is a big deal,” Mrs. Mastrian said. “You no longer dread it.”

With her job as breast nurse navigator at Sharon Regional Health System, Mrs. Mastrian works with cancer patients from the time they receive a questionable mammogram result through surgery, treatment and recovery. She also runs a yoga and exercise class for cancer patients.

Mrs. Brown is clinical manager for the home health agency and works with patients that include those who’ve had mastectomies. Her department oversees in-home care of patients who’re healing after surgeries and other procedures.

Their personal experiences with the disease are a benefit on the job, said both Hermitage residents.

“We have been where they’ve been and through what they’re going through,” Mrs. Mastrian said. Both had bilateral mastectomies since being diagnosed three years ago.

Mrs. Mastrian was a cardiac catheterization nurse for 25 years and she had been involved with the American Cancer Society prior to that because she lost her good friend Jill Stahl to breast cancer years before.

Mrs. Brown’s mother had breast cancer and even though she watched her mother’s struggle, Mrs. Brown said she never thought she’d get the disease.

Everyone reacts differently and every case is different, Mrs. Mastrian said.

“I always tell my patients that it’s not fun, but you’ll get through it,” she said.

Mrs. Mastrian also stressed that it’s OK to not be positive all the time.

“You’ve got to have some down days,” she said. “There are bad moments but they’re temporary and life goes on.”

“And you’re glad that you have that life,” Mrs. Brown said.

“Survivorship is a very difficult thing,” Mrs. Mastrian said. “The emotional scars are deeper than the physical.”

It helps to have someone else who understands.

“I didn’t have anybody to talk to,” Mrs. Mastrian said of going through cancer and treatment.

She’d get up in the morning, get her kids out the door and wrap herself in fleece and “do nothing” until it got to be 2 p.m., when she’d put on her “happy face” so everything seemed normal.

“Mothers hide a lot,” Mrs. Mastrian said.

There’s a lot of fear involved and you don’t want your children to have that fear, Mrs. Brown said.

“It’s still scary,” she said.

Women try to be strong for their families and don’t want to burden them, Mrs. Brown noted.

“They’re protective,” she said.

Mrs. Brown said she had a harder time dealing with having cancer after her surgery was over.

“ ‘OK. Now you’re fine,’ ” she said she tried to think.

“The hardest day for me was walking out of the cancer center after my last treatment,” Mrs. Mastrian said.

She said she’d always think “I’ll be back next week” and whatever’s still there, we’ll get.

“Now I just sit and wait?” Mrs. Mastrian said she felt after treatment was over.

“I don’t know if the fear ever goes away of recurrence,” Mrs. Mastrian said.

“With every pain, you think ‘oh no. Did it go to the bone?” Mrs. Brown added.

And though there are some medical advances that can help identify risk, like gene testing, folks can be afraid of getting those done because insurance companies can use it as a “preexisting condition” and deny coverage for treatment, Mrs. Mastrian noted.

It’s a wonderful that can help protect women and detect the disease early, but it’s not often used, she said.

There are a lot of fallacies about treatment, like the idea that pounds fall off from chemotherapy. Mrs. Mastrian said the average woman actually gains 15 pounds during treatment due to steroids given to fight side effects.

The support from people can “almost be overwhelming,” Mrs. Mastrian said. But folks shouldn’t be offended if a cancer victim doesn’t have something for them to do.

“If people don’t ask for help, it doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t want your help,” Mrs. Mastrian said. “It may mean they have things under control.”

She also offered this advice for people who know someone dealing with cancer: Don’t forget about the person after a couple of months.

And some people might be afraid to contact their friend because they don’t know what to say, Mrs. Mastrian said. It’s OK to call and say you don’t know what to say or call and not talk about it.

“Just talk about what you would have before,” she said.

Mrs. Brown and her husband Philip have three children, Jacob, 17, Anna, 15 and Maggie, 11.

Cindy and Sam Mastrian’s children are Samantha, 29, Adam, 22, and Carly, 19.