CAMDEN — Alexis Howerin never planned on having her photo hanging on a poster in the lobby of a doctor’s office.

Of course, the Caesar Rodney High grad never planned on having cancer, either.

But it made Howerin proud to be on that poster — which simply says she is a 23-year-old cancer survivor — when she heard from a 31-year-old mother who was dealing with cancer, too.

The woman reached out to Howerin to tell her that the poster motivated her when she came in for treatment.

“She was just like, it’s so inspiring that you’re doing so well after what you went through,” said Howerin. “And ‘I can’t imagine how hard it was being so young. Seeing that picture just keeps me going.’

“That’s really touching,” said Howerin. “If I can make a difference just by having a picture in an office, that’s doing something — that’s giving people hope.”

Howerin’s story of overcoming breast cancer has given more than a few people hope.

It’s one of the reasons that the former CR and Wesley College field hockey and softball player was named the winner of the Buddy Hurlock Unsung Hero Award by the Delaware Sportswriters & Broadcasters Association.

Now a teacher and assistant field hockey coach at CR, Howerin will be honored at the DSBA’s 73rd annual banquet at noon on Feb. 21 at DuPont Country Club.

The group has already named Delmar High’s field hockey squad as the state Team of the Year and St. Mark’s volleyball coach Nancy Griskowitz as the state Coach of the Year for 2021.

(Tickets are available at http://www.delasports.org/ for $38 each, with a table of eight available for $290).

Originally diagnosed with Stage 2 cancer in October 2019, Howerin underwent a double mastectomy on March 18, 2020. With the COVID pandemic just beginning in the U.S., she had to go through the surgery without any family members allowed in the hospital.

But Howerin recovered well enough to play in Wesley’s four field hockey games the following spring. They were also the program’s final four games before the school closed.

The previous summer, Howerin challenged her Wolverine teammates to run 100 miles in a month. She thought it’d be a good way to get in shape for the season.

But the challenge spread to other small-college field hockey programs in the region. Eventually it was used to help raise breast cancer awareness the following October.

“So many bought into this,” said Howerin. “We did a lot of miles — over 45,000 miles. In 31 days we had that many people walk, run, jog, bike that many miles. That’s crazy.”

“It gave everyone a purpose of ‘We’re going to be here for Lex,’” former Wesley coach Tracey Short said at the time. “‘We’re going to do this thing for Lex.’

“She’s being positive, she’s being strong. She’s being everything that you cannot imagine of someone that was going through what she was going through. If Lex can do this than the rest of us can do it, too.”

Howerin, who has talked publicly about her experience, hopes to stay active with the Delaware Cancer Coalition

While Howerin’s cancer is considered in remission, it will never be completely out of her life. She still takes a daily chemo pill.

But she’s also ready to move on. Along with teaching phys ed and coaching field hockey, she’d also like to coach softball at CR.

Ultimately, Howerin doesn’t want cancer to define her life.

“There are days I struggle with it,” she said. “My physical appearance will never be the same. I also am still going through the stages of growth from all the trauma from it.

“But the biggest thing I take away from it is I’m still alive. I still have a lot of life to live. It didn’t knock me down to where I couldn’t live my life.

“I plan on staying in this profession until I retire,” Howerin added. “I love what I do, I love being around kids. At the end of the day, if I can make an impact on one kid’s life and change one person’s outlook on life than I’ve done what I needed to do.”

Follow Andy Walter on Twitter at @DSNSports.