By RIch Winter 

605 Sports

CANTON — When Canton resident Daneen Gannon was diagnosed with breast cancer in August she felt compelled to let people know.

Gannon works at a popular coffee shop in Canton, Laura’s Lattes, and she just couldn’t let her customers wonder why she was gone during her upcoming treatments. 

“I took to Facebook and basically explained to everyone what was going on and where I was at in life,” Gannon said. 

Gannon had a routine mammogram in August and got the results back 10 days later. Her doctor suggested they do an ultrasound which produced results that looked like cancer but could have been a cyst. 

An MRI in September confirmed the cancer diagnosis and Gannon went through the first of eight chemotherapy treatments on Oct. 1. 

“It was completely brutal,” Gannon said. 

The mother of four, with two children in high school, wasn’t prepared for the toll the chemotherapy would take on her body. Nor was she prepared for the outpouring of love and support that came from her community where both she and her husband were raised. 

“My entire family rallied and put on a benefit for me on October 1,” she said. “People from Iowa and from Minnesota and all over showed up with an estimated tally of 800 people.”

Gannon was overwhelmed by that support and it carried her during the tough months of chemotherapy. 

“I definitely feel we got way more than we deserved,” she said. “I truly know that the people of this town are the best people ever and I could never repay them. It is hard for me to know that I can’t repay the kindness that has been shown to me.”

When you live in a small town in South Dakota and you have a boy on the basketball team and a girl on the wrestling team people know you. When you have those kids and you make the best coffee in town people really know you. 

Gannon had a girlfriend that made T-shirts for the October benefit. The boys basketball team regularly wears T-shirts that say, ‘Dribbling for Daneen’. The girls wrestling team, top ranked in South Dakota and on which Gannon’s daughter Jewel participates, has been wearing pink shirts and pink ribbons all season to support the team mom. 

The support from the high school age students has meant everything to Daneen Gannon. 

“Everytime I go to a school event I get stopped by high school kids everywhere,” she said. “They all want to stop me and hug me. I love visiting with them and it makes me so happy to see the kids wear my shirt with my name on it.” 

Gannon is particularly bonded with the Canton girls wrestling team. 

“My daughter has been in this sport for four years so I’ve gotten to know some of the girls really well,” she said. “They are like my daughters and I love them all so much.” 

Vocal since the onset of her illness Gannon continues to speak on the importance of regular checkups and mammograms.

“The Pink Ladies group asked me to speak at one of their events,” she said. “One in eight women get breast cancer and I looked around the room and saw way more than eight people.”