From Brave Days to Brighter Days: Sherie Steinberger’s Surthrivor Stor

Meet Sherie

“My name is Sherie… and I’m beyond lucky to be alive.”

Sherie just turned 64 and carries the kind of energy you feel through the screen. Grounded, grateful, and quietly fierce. She’s a retired executive assistant to the Dean of an Osteopathic Medical School, happiest outdoors working in her yard, and deeply devoted to service.

Together with her husband, Alan, Sherie volunteers for causes close to their hearts, supporting breast cancer research and community care, helping families navigate long hospital stays, and fundraising for people impacted by congenital heart defects.

They also volunteer at their church, and after their own family was affected by the opioid epidemic, they turned that pain into purpose… speaking at events and contributing to a book to help others feel less alone.

It’s the theme of Sherie’s life: keep going, keep giving, keep loving.

The moment everything changed

Sherie’s diagnosis came swiftly and publicly.

After her yearly mammogram, she got a call while she was at work… six people standing in her office as she learned she had cancer. Her medical team didn’t waste a moment. Within 24 hours, she’d met with a surgeon, oncologist, and radiation doctor. Treatment began within the week.

Sherie was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer, one of the faster-moving subtypes, so urgency mattered. Every step moved quickly, and through it all, her husband was there: every appointment, every decision, every difficult day.

Treatment, setbacks, and the strength to pivot

Sherie began chemo, but the first regimen didn’t work. After 10 treatments, her doctors changed course. The new chemo started shrinking the cancer, and she completed 12 treatments total.

Then came a curveball she didn’t expect: shingles during chemo—painful enough that Sherie says it hurt worse than any of the cancer treatments.

Next: 22 rounds of radiation, followed by a lumpectomy, and then six months of chemo pills “just to be sure.”

Sherie credits her doctors at the Cleveland Clinic for saving her life and giving her a second chance she doesn’t take for granted.

The mirror moment she’ll never forget

Before her diagnosis, Sherie says she worked to feel self-confident, and her husband played a significant role in that steady sense of self.

Then chemo arrived, and her hair started falling out in clumps after the first treatment. Sherie knew exactly what she wanted: she asked her husband to shave her head the day it started, because watching it fall would have felt more traumatic.

So they went to the basement, and he shaved her head.

And then, in Sherie’s words, they laughed.

He told her she had the prettiest scalp. Sherie looked in the mirror and joked, “I look like my grandfather.” They laughed again. He hugged her and told her she was just as beautiful.

That’s Sherie: honest, brave, and determined to stay positive without pretending it’s easy.

A “minimal” routine and a big wish

Sherie calls her post-chemo beauty routine minimal. She’s never been someone chasing perfection… she likes products that are easy and comfortable. On a typical day, she reaches for moisturizer, eyeliner, setting powder, and bronzer. If she’s going out: eyeshadow, mascara, and definitely lipstick.

Lipstick is her must-have, but she’d never found one that truly stays on.

After trying Prime, Sherie didn’t just leave a review; she shared something we’ll never forget:

“Prime makeup has literally changed my life… The mascara makes me look as though I actually have some eyelashes…

Because of my neuropathy… and a tremor… I could not hold an eyeliner steady… this eyeliner I can apply…

I can do it MYSELF!

Thank you for helping me get my confidence back and for making me feel pretty again.”

This is why we make products the way we do at Prime Prometics: gentle formulas, thoughtful design, and real performance, so women can feel like themselves again, on their own terms.