Casting for Recovery: Elyse Whitworth’s Journey

There are certain events that happen in life that can stop us in our tracks and cause us to reconsider the future we once imagined. Out of nowhere we are hit with a wave of uncertainty that reshapes everything we thought we knew about our life’s course. Such a disruption serves as a dividing line between the life we once knew and the uncharted waters ahead. A cancer diagnosis is never something we expect, nor something for which we can ever prepare. Statistically, one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime. This fact underscores how many lives this disease will inevitably touch, not to mention the impact on the lives of their families. For the survivors, their identities are transformed—no longer defined by their lives before diagnosis but shaped by the strength forged through overcoming challenges.

Elyse Whitworth of Dawsonville, Georgia is one such survivor, and her journey so far has revealed her courage, her faith, and her capacity to endure. Through the obstacles she has faced after being diagnosed with stage 2b breast cancer, Elyse finds herself calling upon an inner strength, like a river current that guides her towards healing.

Photo Courtesy Lynn Lomas

The diagnosis came out of nowhere in January of 2024. She was experiencing pain in her right side, which caused a lot of discomfort, along with some drainage which was very concerning. She and her husband immediately consulted “Dr. Google,” which provided a range of potential conditions, the worst of which was inflammatory breast cancer. She might have felt a tiny spot but wasn’t really sure. Elyse went to the ER, and was told it absolutely was not breast cancer, and that it generally does not present itself in that way. She had no family history of breast cancer, which is most commonly believed to be a major factor. The ER gave her some antibiotics and instructed her to apply warm compresses to ease her symptoms.

Several days later it wasn’t any better so she went back to her doctor. Her nurse practitioner, who Elyse credits with saving her life, spoke to the head of the department at Northside Hospital where they performed mammograms, ultrasounds, and did a biopsy right then and there. “I knew,” Elyse says, “and listening to my body was the right thing to do, because I came back with stage 2b triple positive breast cancer.”

In the beginning, Elyse was naïve, like so many others that don’t know what to expect: “I thought, six months, I’ll do some chemo, and I’ll be good to go.” Her mother-in-law had passed away from breast cancer seventeen years prior, at a time in which the oncology world continued to treat all breast cancers the same. Even though many advancements were made in recent years with early detection and treatment, there is still a long way to go. “They’ve made many strides,” Elyse says, “ but it’s still such a huge number, one in eight, and we’re getting younger and younger.”

Elyse had a very difficult time with chemo and had to do a year of immunotherapy with KADCYLA. “My journey is ongoing,” she says, and revealed that she has found another lump recently. “When you’re faced with that kind of issue, having more and more scans, you develop “scanxiety—you get the scan, you wait, get another scan. It’s a week before you hear back.”

The cabins at Smithgall Woods State Park provide plenty of space for participants to gather together; when participants arrive, they get fitted for waders and boots and then have time to relax at Smithgall Cabin before a welcome reception on Friday afternoon. Courtesy Lynn Lomas

She recalls the ups and downs, a lot of tears, confusion and forgetting. “Bless my family’s souls, they had to come with me to every appointment, because I couldn’t remember what the doctors were saying. Brain fog is real.” She speaks of the constant worry that the next test, the next scan, or doctor visit could prove more bad news. “It’s still ongoing and it’s still tough, and people just don’t understand that for a breast cancer patient, once the treatment is done it doesn’t mean that it’s over.”

As someone whose life has been reshaped by breast cancer, Elyse wants to encourage women to listen to their bodies, and to pay attention to know when something feels wrong. She encourages others to seek medical attention, rather than waiting for someone else to decide. Had she listened to the ER doctor instead of getting a second opinion, her cancer might not have been caught in time. “I had to advocate for myself,” she emphasizes.

Finding Healing Through Fly Fishing

The best friend of Elyse’s sister, who was diagnosed with breast cancer as well, had participated in an event where Casting for Recovery (CfR) had a presence, spreading the word about their retreats for breast cancer survivors. After hearing this, and with encouragement from Elyse’s sister, both women applied and were selected from the random drawing to attend a retreat in North Georgia’s Smithgall Woods State Park for an all-expense-paid, fully catered weekend retreat. Elyse was nervous at first because she knew nothing about fly fishing and was still in the middle of a treatment at the time of the event. “I was still kind of in that brain fog, just fatigued and just tired all of the time.” She says the retreat was such an amazing experience: “Not just the event itself, because I couldn’t remember some of it and wasn’t my true self— but what I remember most was just the love and support provided by people who actually knew. It’s great and wonderful to have support from friends and family.”

Elyse and CfR participant, and new friend, Toren Buscher pose before heading to the river to fish on Sunday.
Courtesy Lynn Lomas

Elyse says it made all the difference to have someone who works with cancer patients every day and understands what symptoms she was experiencing, as well as the treatment she was going through.

Due to weakness from being mid-treatment at the time of the retreat, Elyse admitted she slept through part of the scheduled activities and group sessions on the first day, including a presentation on bugs and stream entomology led by someone who is now dear friend, Diane Minick. Though she hated to miss the class, she got some much needed rest. She attributes the ability to relax and to the beautiful setting and high comfort level with her surroundings, Elyse slept like she hadn’t in a long time. “People came in and checked on me to make sure I was ok, but they let me sleep,” she says.

May 2025 Casting for Recovery – GA participants pose together before heading to the water to fly fish.

One of things Elyse appreciated about the experience was how CfR was considerate of the needs of all participants, such as food restrictions and other requirements they might have: “If you’re on chemo and you can’t eat certain foods or certain smells bother you, they take all of that into consideration and make this an amazing experience and you feel so loved and supported.”

Daniel and Elyse meet for the first time on Sunday. Daniel is assigned as a volunteer river guide to support Elyse’s continuing knowledge of fly fishing.

The weekend included support groups where participants could talk to cancer specialists and other survivors about the things they were struggling with at that particular point in their journey: “There’s people, who like me, had just been diagnosed, and there’s people who were twenty year survivors…so you’ve got all this support.” They are taught basic fly fishing skills and casting instruction. Elyse enjoyed tying her very own fly and learning from the instructors.

Fly tying is one of the new skills participants learn during a weekend retreat. Each participant learns to tie a fly that can be used to fish the waters of the Chattahoochee River on Sunday. Here Elyse is working on a black woolly bugger. Courtesy Lynn Lomas

When Sunday arrived, the group got to apply those new skills. “So you have somebody who knows what they’re doing take you on the water,” Elyse says. “It was like three or four hours, but I literally didn’t want to leave. There’s just something so peaceful and so re-energizing and refreshing about being outdoors, being on the water. Just throw in that line… I was the last one off the water.” Elyse admits that she didn’t catch a thing all day, but her time in nature and on the water was so amazing and was an experience she will never forget. “I went out the next week and bought all the things. I got waders, and wading boots, the rod—all the things.”

Since then, Elyse has had a few setbacks that have prevented her from getting back on the water such as more rounds of treatments and a double mastectomy. However, she plans to get together with some of the same women soon for a trip they’ve planned and she will be ready when that time comes. Elyse has a great enthusiasm for the work CfR is doing, and she appreciates the chance to share what the program did for her and the effect it had on her mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

Elyse, alongside volunteer river guide Daniel Weddle, makes a perfect drift through a run on the Chattahoochee River in Helen. Quiet moments of peace and reflection are in abundance on Sundays on the river.

One thing Elyse was very excited about was the chance to get together with other past participants of the event to collaborate with SweetWater Brewing Company to create a beer, which the group named Reel Strength—a limited-release rosé sour brewed with fresh hibiscus. “That is when I really fell in love with everything Casting for Recovery is doing,” Elyse says. “The event itself is spectacular, but the fact that they do these outreaches at different events and just getting women into the sport—which most people wouldn’t think would be so healing for breast cancer survivors and thrivers, but it is amazing.” Elyse could never say enough about CfR and the difference it made in her ongoing journey of recovery: “It was quite honestly the coolest experience of my life.”

Dukes’ Creek runs through Smithgall Woods, and on Saturday, participants watch an on-water fishing demonstration to learn more about the essentials of casting, mending, and fighting fish. Participants get a “bird’s eye” view of the stream which helps build confidence for Sunday’s fishing experience. Courtesy Lynn Lomas