Vargas beats cancer, looks to future

By Jacob Marrocco
Posted 5/10/17

By JACOB MARROCCO Shortly after announcing her bid for a citywide seat on the Cranston City Council last summer, Lammis Vargas was in for the fight of her life. Vargas, 35, was diagnosed with Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia (APL) just weeks after declaring

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Vargas beats cancer, looks to future

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Shortly after announcing her bid for a citywide seat on the Cranston City Council last summer, Lammis Vargas was in for the fight of her life.

Vargas, 35, was diagnosed with Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia (APL) just weeks after declaring her candidacy. She continued her campaign into the summer and the fall, and despite an eventual loss at the polls, she would pull down a huge win in the spring.

She went into remission on April 24. Vargas said she had a bone marrow biopsy performed two weeks prior to that date and it came up clean. She will have visits every three months to have blood work performed, but she said she was thrilled to receive a “second shot” at life.

“I feel great, I feel very thankful,” Vargas said. “I feel like my life in a sense has gone back into the normality of things. I can live my normal life in a very delicate way, I would say. Healthy eating, getting exercise [both] play into living a good life.”

Vargas, who works as the director of unclaimed property for General Treasurer Seth Magaziner, praised her office and the Warwick Police Department for their help during her fight. Her husband, Christian, works for the WPD. She also said her daughter’s teachers were able to pitch in as well.

Another significant support group for Vargas was the YMCA’s LIVESTRONG program, which networks cancer patients, survivors or those touched by the disease in some way twice a week. She hoped to help advertise the meetings better in order to show others suffering from cancer another outlet.

“It was the importance of talking to each other about what we’re all going through,” Vargas said. “The YMCA staffers are there to teach you breathing, how to relax, what to do on a stressful day and share other resources around the state. There are people who don’t know what these resources are. I vouch for it. One of the things I’ve been doing is reaching out to folks like the Rhode Island Cancer Center in hopes we could put up fliers to let folks know about that program.”

Those various sources of support, from family to work to the YMCA, helped Vargas endure a nine-month stretch of treatment. She had to put a family vacation on hold and balance work and family life with the battle she was facing.

She had no intentions of halting her campaign, but she was cautious about any signals her body gave her. After all, her diagnosis came only following a trip to emergency room with some bruising all over. One particularly large bruise brought her to a physician, and by the end of the day she had clarity.

She continues to monitor every sign closely to this day.

“It was extremely hard,” Vargas said. “I never cried in front of my kids or even in front of my husband to be honest. The person you would see walking, still campaigning, I didn’t want to give up. Walking was really good for me. I always made sure with the doctors what I was doing was good for me. The [cancer] I had luckily had a high curable rate. Not to say that it can’t come back, but you just never think that it could be you.

“I said to myself I’ll move on with this campaign. It was my first time running and I’m very, very happy that I did.”

Her support systems and campaign helped keep her positive, and she said she received invaluable support from the City of Cranston and the state.

Vargas is back to a normal schedule, as optimistic now as she was during her journey.

“Faith moves mountains,” Vargas said. “Having a positive attitude towards life got me through [to] where I am today just as far as going through this emotional and health-wise roller coaster. I’m back into continuing going to my board meetings, interacting again with folks I put on hold and I’m finally getting back into the swing of things.”

Vargas has also given thought to another push at the City Council in 2018. She said that if all goes well, she is “highly, highly anticipating” a campaign next year.

“I am not going to say ‘no,’ I’ve been asked that quite a bit,” Vargas said about running for council again. “That’s usually the second question people ask. Assuming my health condition continues to stay on board, I never say never. I’m definitely looking forward to hoping I can run again.”

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