Amanda (Mandi) Benner

Welcome to our CaringBridge site. We've created it to keep friends and family updated. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement during this time when it matters most.
Hi, I am Amanda (Mandi) Benner. I am a wife (to Mark) a mom (to Sydney), I love my God, my family, my friends and especially working with Special Olympic Athletes. Many of my close friends would say I have the gift of giving (probably too much). Many of you know over the years we have fought many tough battles with and for our daughter Sydney and have won many of those battles and she is a vibrant beautiful almost 17 year old, who is the joy of my life.
I am now fighting the toughest battle of my life called Cancer. On January 28th, after 2 weeks of tests, I was officially diagnosed with Breast Cancer. After another month of extensive testing I underwent a Lumpectomy on March 4th. Surgery went well, lymph nodes were clean. However, all of that changed when I went back to seethe surgeon just 6 days later. We thought we were going back for a follow up and to discuss next steps. That was not the case. During the course of pathology, it was discovered that there was a great deal more cancer then originally detected by any of the scans. They had found 12 additional spots in the segment they had removed. All of the Doctors were horrified and thought they had messed up. They did not. This cancer is not showing on any of the scans, and never will, which is pretty scary stuff. So in light of all of this it has been decided that I will have a double mastectomy and reconstruction on April 8th. What course of treatment will follow after this is not know. There are too many unknowns as to what will be found with the surgery.

My dear friend Annette has so graciously offered to maintain and update this site so my friends and extended family can be kept up to date if they so chose.

I am doing great, I am living life and plan on doing the same after all of this. I am totally at peace with all of this and I’ve got this! I have incredible friends and family who have been supporting me and I know will continue to do so. Sydney is been my main concern and is so far doing well. She said she is happy about the surgery because she knows they are going to take the bad stuff out of me. Prayers are the most important thing anyone can do for me.My love to you all.

One final note – for all of you, I have always kept up with my annual checkups, exams and tests. This has probably saved my life. Please think about this and be sure you and your loved ones are doing the same, it could make a world of difference for you and your family. Peace and Blessings to you.