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It was meant to be the happiest moment of her life – Sarah Glad was pregnant after more than a year trying.
But never did she expect that, within a few months, she’d also be dealt the most terrifying of moments: a diagnosis of stage four, aggressive breast cancer.
The civil servant, from South Carolina, died less than two years later, aged 35, leaving behind her new toddler son and husband.
But according to her family, Ms Glad’s death could have been prevented.
They now believe she was poisoned by one of the college campus buildings that has since been closed because it contains dangerous levels of toxic chemicals.
The specific structure indicated is Poe Hall – a department building which held education and psychology classes for 4,000 students.
‘The last two years of her undergrad degree were at Poe Hall,’ Sarah’s husband, Robbie Glad, 40, a general manager, told DailyMail.com. ‘Then almost 10 years later, she battled cancer for two years. It’s hard to watch your loved one go through that.’
Mr and Mrs Glad with their son. Her family believe she was poisoned by one of her college’s campus buildings that has since been closed because it contains dangerous levels of toxic chemicals
Her husband told DailyMail.com: ‘She was not going to sacrifice the baby… one of our goals was for her to be a mother and she was about to be one. She wasn’t going to let cancer take that away from her’
Just over three months into her pregnancy, Mrs Glad was diagnosed aged 33 with stage four triple negative breast cancer
Speaking of the heartbreaking timing of her diagnosis, Mr Glad said his wife was determined to survive long enough to become a mother.
He said: ‘She was not going to sacrifice the baby… one of our goals was for her to be a mother and she was about to be one. She wasn’t going to let cancer take that away from her.’
Mrs Glad was one of dozens of students, staff and alumni who have been diagnosed with cancers and other diseases linked to the university building on the North Carolina State University site.
Subsequent investigations found dangerously high levels of a poisonous, cancer-causing substance called polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) detected in several of the building’s rooms.
Studies show that PCBs suppress the immune system, allowing cancers to develop and spread.
In five areas, PCB levels were found to be more than 38 times the Environmental Protection Agency’s safety limit.
The finding, coupled with the 152 lawsuits from patients claiming the structure caused their sickness, led to the closure of the building late last year.
Mr Glad says, on first impressions, he thought she was ‘a true Southern belle’
Mrs Glad died in January, though she was able to fulfill one dream and become a mother in August 2022
Mr and Mrs Glad both attended NC State university, but did not meet until a mutual friend introduced them after they had both left.
Mr Glad says, on first impressions, he thought she was ‘a true Southern belle’.
‘I can’t say enough about how thoughtful she was for other people.’
Mrs Glad dreamed of using her degree in political science and communications from North Carolina State University to run for office.
‘My wife was a very beautiful woman, but she was even more beautiful on the inside,’ Mr Glad said.
Poe Hall was constructed in 1971, when PCBs were commonly used in industrial products like oils, insulators, and electric appliances such as TV sets, lighting, and refrigerators.
PCBs, including those used to build Poe Hall, were largely mass produced by agricultural giant Monsanto until they were banned in 1979 amid concerns that they harmed humans and the environment.
The most common building materials where PCBs lurk are resin and varnish used in tiles and carpets as well as other adhesives and paints.
Around 15 years after they graduated, in 2017, Mr and Mrs Glad got married.
And in the same year, Mrs Glad noticed a lump on her left breast. Despite expressing concerns with her physician, it was never properly investigated as Mrs Glad’s health insurance deemed her too young for them to cover the cost of the biopsy.
When she got pregnant in 2022 and her breasts grew, the lump did too, and her insurance finally approved a biopsy.
But just over three months into her pregnancy, Mrs Glad was diagnosed aged 33 with stage four triple negative breast cancer.
Her oncologist gave her the option to abort the baby, but Mrs Glad did three rounds of chemo while pregnant and gave birth to a baby bon in August 2023.
A month after their son was born, Mrs Glad was due to restart chemotherapy, but she suffered a ‘massive brain seizure’ and the couple were given the devastating news that the cancer had spread to her brain.
Poe Hall, a class building at North Carolina State University, closed amid concerns of ‘forever chemicals’ polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which have been linked to cancer
Poe Hall was constructed in 1971, a time when PCBs were more commonly used in industrial products. PCBs were banned in 1979, though they still remain in older buildings
More than 150 people have been diagnosed with cancer linked to Poe Hall, which held education and psychology classes for 4,000 students
Mrs Glad’s mother and grandmother are both breast cancer survivors, but she had a completely different type of the disease to her relatives.
Mr and Mrs Glad paid out of pocket for multiple gene tests which showed that Mrs Glad did not carry any of the genes that would have made her more susceptible to breast cancer.
A month after Mrs Glad was diagnosed with cancer, one of her former classmates, who completed the same undergraduate and master’s program as her in Poe Hall, was diagnosed with colon cancer.
They later discovered one of their professors had also been diagnosed with breast cancer.
Last November, local TV station 5 On Your Side broadcasted a special about a supposed link between cancer and those who attended Poe Hall.
Jennifer Walter, who attended the university from 2004 to 2007, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2017
This was followed by synovial sarcoma – which mainly attacks tissues near large joints like the knees – which she was diagnosed with in 2022
NC State alumna Christie Lewis (pictured left), who attended the university from 2007 to 2012, said that she started having night sweats while she was taking classes in Poe Hall. ‘I could not figure out what was happening,’ she told Fox News Digital
Mrs Glad then contacted the University to flag her concerns – suggesting perhaps she had fallen victim to the building’s curse.
‘My wife’s not an angry person at all,’ said Mr Glad. ‘We were disappointed because… if people were aware that they’ve been exposed to certain conditions, they can be a little more proactive in getting tested and trying to catch it as early as possible.’
‘Unfortunately, my wife was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer (where the disease has spread), so the prognosis was not very good, especially with the type of breast cancer she had.
‘But if she had known that she was exposed to certain things, maybe she could have used that to get the insurance to do a biopsy years earlier, and we could have caught it earlier.’
As for the university, Mr Glad said: ‘Their actions speak louder than their words. They’re making this more of a cover your ass situation, rather than looking at it as a health issue that I think they owe that to the students and the professors.
‘My wife and I love the university, we’ve donated money to the scholarship funds, we donate it to the sports programs. We bleed red and white. We take a lot of pride in that.
‘It’s one of those situations where you just don’t feel like they care. I hate to say that, but that’s what it feels like.’
Another former student who was affected was Jessica (not her real name), 49, who attended NC State between 1993 and 1997.
She majored in communications and had some classes at Poe Hall.
She was diagnosed with stage two breast cancer in December 2022 after a yearly mammogram flagged a lump in her breast.
‘It was very disturbing to see (the links to Poe Hall) to be honest,’ she told DailyMail.com.
‘I have no family history of cancer at all and I’m just sort of a random person in my family that got it. It’s really strange. I don’t know if it’s connected, but it does seem very unusual,’ she said.
She underwent a grueling regime of chemotherapy and radiation and surgery to remove the lump, and is now in remission.
NC State alumna Christie Lewis, who attended the university from 2007 to 2012, said that she started having night sweats while she was taking classes in Poe Hall. ‘I could not figure out what was happening,’ she told Fox News Digital.
‘I was having to get up in the middle of night and change clothes completely. And then I would fall asleep. And I had to put a towel down.’
‘It honestly took me weeks to even tell my husband about them because I kept on forgetting about it because it was just in the middle of the night.’
Around 2011-2012, Ms Lewis was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.
Months later, she discovered a lump on her neck, which turns out to be angosarcoma, a tumor found in the inner walls of blood and lymph vessels.
Though she initially thought it was just circumstance, she became suspicious after reading reports about a potential link between Poe Hall and cancer cases.
‘Maybe my body isn’t the problem. Maybe I was actually exposed to something that caused this. I don’t know, it definitely shook me a little bit,’ she said.
Jennifer Walter, who attended the university from 2004 to 2007, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2017, followed by synovial sarcoma – which mainly attacks tissues near large joints like the knees – in 2022.
‘There are such scary statistics that are tied with sarcoma. It’s just a lot more real,’ she told Fox News Digital.
‘They got it early, which I’m grateful for, but that fear never goes away. It’s something I’m going to have every day for the rest of my life.’
Ms Lewis said that she feels ‘violated’ because she thought she was ‘getting a good education…in a safe place’ before suddenly being ‘put in unsafe conditions.’
She also fears she may have passed on PCB exposure to her children.
‘It’s made me feel just really nervous,’ she said.
DailyMail.com has reached out to North Carolina State University for comment.
