Meet Ann Strum, one of our 2023 Crawfish Boil Recipients

Meet Ann Strum

A Newbury Park native, a mom, a breast cancer survivor and now an esophageal cancer fighter. They say history often repeats itself and for Ann Strum that is the case as she is now facing cancer for her second time.

Ann moved to Newbury Park when she was in third grade and essentially grew up there. She’s a Newbury Park panther alum (Class of ‘87) who was very active in school. She played softball and was a captain on the cheer squad. After spending a good chunk of her life in NP Ann decided she wanted to move closer to her sister. She packed her things and moved to Grass Valley, California.

A few years later, in 1994, she had her daughter, Mikala. As a single mother, she attended college and worked full time. She worked and provided for her daughter, who was very active in sports and FFA. She lived mostly paycheck to paycheck, but they never did without.

In 2013, Ann was offered an amazing job opportunity in Austin, Texas. It was another experience to start fresh and try something new. She was able to travel to new places, purchase her first home, and find success in her career.

Fast forward three years to October of 2016, Ann’s parents had planned to visit her in Texas but a shocking doctor’s appointment put a halt to that trip.

Ann had a feeling something was off but had put off visiting a doctor for months. It wasn’t until she was watching a movie at home alone about a girl who found out she was dying of cancer, that she decided to figure out what was really going on. Ann was scared that she might be in the same boat.

After numerous rounds of tests and doctor’s visits, Ann was diagnosed with Stage 3 Breast Cancer.

Ann immediately packed up her things, left her house vacant, and moved back in with her parents in Newbury Park. She went through a full year of treatment, including chemotherapy, two lumpectomies, a double mastectomy, radiation and sessions in a hyperbaric chamber. She persevered through every hurdle and in October of 2017 it was announced that she was officially in remission. She had beat her battle against breast cancer.

In June of 2021, Ann began a new journey of sobriety, something that has been in her family for generations. In December of the same year her brother lost his battle with alcoholism. After the loss of her brother, she realized how important spending time with family and loved ones is.

In 2022 Ann was laid off from her position as a mortgage lender due to the rising interest rates. She took this time to visit family and friends. She got another job as a mortgage lender but was again laid off for the same reason.

As Ann was continuing her job search, she noticed she was having issues swallowing. It started small, as if the food went down a little wrong. A dry cough developed in her throat, but she thought nothing of something as little as a cough. After some time, the food started to feel like it was getting stuck in her throat and she eventually experienced a few very serious choking encounters.

In January of 2023 she drove herself to the ER after choking on a piece of pizza. There they performed an endoscopy to clear her throat and that is when they observed a mass. They then took a biopsy during her endoscopy procedure. The biopsy later came back as squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus. This is “a serious and scary cancer and it's not like breast cancer.”

Upon the new diagnosis, Mikala, who was living on Oahu, moved back home to help care for her mother. Ann has currently completed 2 chemotherapy sessions. Her doctors are hesitant to start radiation until the mass is smaller, since she previously had been exposed to radiation in that area during her first battle with cancer. Through all of this, Ann is staying positive and owning it. She mentioned “I have so much living to do. I have to do my best today. Financially I’m struggling but I’m not on the streets and I have so much to be thankful for.”

Ann has a long journey ahead but she notes she is a “glass half full girl” and will get through this. Ann has learned to ask for and accept help and believes that others should do the same when it's needed.

With that, we are so excited to announce Ann Strum as one of our 2023 Crawfish Boil Recipients. Ann is ready to receive help and we hope you will join us at The Jewel Levine Foundation in giving back to her during her time of need.

Ann and her daughter, Mikala