When your mother has breast cancer: Kalan Porter’s story

Originally titled "Journey with my mom," from the October 2007 issue of Canadian Living Magazine, on newsstands or click here to purchase online.

It was real
The first time Kalan Porter saw his mother, Janet, without any hair, it was like having the wind knocked out of him. Weeks of telephone calls between the pair weren’t enough to completely prepare him for the shock of seeing the side-effects of breast cancer treatment on his once-vibrant mother, Janet. “I remember walking in the front door when I got home and saw my mom bald,” he recalls. “It was right then when I had to catch my breath because it was real.”

Janet was diagnosed with stage-one infiltrating ductal carcinoma after a routine mammogram in 2006. The disease accounts for approximately 80 per cent of all breast cancers in women. “There was no palpable lump at all, and I was told by all the doctors not to worry, as they were sure it was nothing,” recalls Janet. “There was no history of breast cancer in my family. I felt healthy. We were all totally shocked that it was cancer. It was pretty devastating.” A week after her diagnosis Janet underwent surgery and began treatment.

A tight family
The Porters have always been a close-knit clan. Janet and her husband, Rick, raised Kalan and his two younger sisters on the family’s generations-old cattle and buffalo ranch near the small town of Irvine, Alta., about a half-hour outside Medicine Hat. With kilometres of farmland separating them from their nearest neighbours, they relied on one another – and extended family members who lived nearby – for support and a sense of community.

With his mother’s encouragement, Kalan was winning local singing competitions in his preteen years, learning to play an assortment of instruments – including the viola, violin and guitar – and plunging himself into music. Their collective efforts eventually helped Kalan hit the Canadian Idol stage, where the soft-spoken, self-proclaimed “small-town country kid” became an instant fan favourite.

A rising star
Three years ago at the age of 18, after some 3.6 million votes were cast, Kalan crooned Nat King Cole’s “Nature Boy” to edge out Theresa Sokyrka of Saskatoon for the Idol crown. Kalan immediately found himself – and his family – thrust into the national spotlight.

“It was kind of a scary time. I know it was for my parents because they were worried with what was happening with their son going off into the big world.” Janet agrees, recalling that the sudden attention from the media and fans felt a bit like a tsunami. “It bowls you over. You just hold on and try to ride through it.”

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