Brunswick County teacher says her students encouraged her as she battled cancer

As Kasey Bienkowski packs away her supplies and cleans out her classroom for the summer, posters made by her students still grace the walls.

The messages, written in the students’ handwriting, are much the same: “We missed you, Miss B.!” “We love you!” “We hope you feel better!”

A second-grade teacher at Town Creek Elementary School, Bienkowski said those messages kept her going as she fought ovarian cancer this year.

At 25 years old, she is not your typical ovarian cancer patient. Oncologist Dr. Lindsey Buckingham with Novant Health explained Bienkowski’s case was rare because most ovarian cancer patients are older women.

Bienkowski’s symptoms began years before with painful and irregular menstrual cycles. Her doctor assumed endometriosis was the cause of her pain and prescribed birth control to combat the symptoms.

“But nothing ever really worked,” Bienkowski explained.

When she moved to North Carolina, she began seeing Dr. Tracey McCarthy, an obstetrician and gynecologist with Novant Health. McCarthy was concerned about the symptoms and ordered additional testing, which revealed a 13-centimeter ovarian cyst. The cyst was surgically removed, and pathology later revealed it to be cancerous.

Bienkowski was in shock when she got the results.

“I was out shopping with my mom at the outlets, and I was like, ‘Oh! My MyChart notification! I’m just going to look at it,’ and I saw ‘carcinoma’ and I’m like, “I don’t think that is a good thing,’” she explained.

McCarthy then called to confirm the diagnosis and referred her to Buckingham.

Treatment included egg retrieval, a complete hysterectomy, the removal of part of her stomach and ablation of additional spots of cancer. Six cycles of chemotherapy followed.

Bienkowski continued to work throughout her treatment. Knowing she was going to lose her hair and miss some time in the classroom for treatment, she had a talk with her students.

“We kind of had a conversation about there’s some bad things in Mrs. B’s body, and I have to get medicine to try to get rid of those bad things,” she said.

Her students encouraged and cheered her on throughout the process.

“Coming in and seeing the kids every day was my biggest motivator,” she said. “They’re the reason why I wanted to get chemo and get better so I could get back in this classroom and keep doing what I love. And it was just such a good kind of escape for me mentally because during the day, when you’re taking care of 20 students, I don’t have time to sit and think about the fact that I have cancer. I’m doing a million things and going a million miles a minute.”

While she recently received a clean scan and is on her way to being cancer-free, Bienkowski is encouraging other women to be aware of the signs and symptoms of ovarian cancer and talk to their doctors.

“It’s definitely important to listen to your body and advocate for yourself if you feel like something is wrong,” she said.