Story by B.C. Manion of the Laker / Lutz News. The women sat in a circle, quietly sharing the ways their lives have been affected by three devastating words: “You have cancer.” For one, the words were so fresh that she couldn’t quite wrap her mind around her situation. For another, those words have been uttered repeatedly and have caused multiple surgeries. One member of the group, Paula O’Neil — Pasco County’s clerk of the circuit court and county comptroller — had joined the women to share her story. For O’Neil, like for the others, finding out she had breast cancer was a jolt. “I was totally shocked. I really felt that I led a healthy life,” O’Neil said. In the area where the cancer was found, O’Neil had been previously screened with a mammogram and a sonogram and had been fine, she said.Statistics from the American Cancer Society, estimate that about 1.7 million new cancer cases will be diagnosed in 2014, and nearly 1,600 Americans per day are expected to die from the disease. When O’Neil heard she had breast cancer, she didn’t believe she would die. She said she’d met so many survivors through her association with the American Cancer Society that she didn’t expect that her disease would be fatal. “I figured I would make it through,” O’Neil said. But that didn’t mean the experience was easy. “I think the hardest time is between the time when you find out and you find out what they’re going to do,” she said. “You don’t how far it spread. You don’t know what’s going to happen to you.” It’s not easy for the family, either. “When you first find out you have cancer, you and your family, it’s like, ‘Holy cow, are you kidding me?’ And then, you start accepting it,” she said. Making O’Neil’s case more complicated is the public nature of her work. As clerk of the circuit court, she has a large staff of 150 people and many responsibilities. Before she informed her staff, O’Neil gathered her executive team around her to share her news. She wanted them to help reassure the staff that she was looking good and expected to be OK. She said she wanted to be sure she controlled the story, so she notified the press. “When you’re in an elective position, you have to be careful. You don’t want people to think you’re going to die,” O’Neil said. “I wanted the story from myself. I didn’t want rumors.”
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