Valentine’s Day is normally filled with love and happiness, however not one in 2005. That day my mother received the news that would forever change her life.

My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer that day. My family and I had our car packed and we were getting ready to leave for Tahoe for February vacation when the news came. My mother described the trip as, “a very long, quiet ride”.

As a little chubby fifth grader who was only 11, I barely remember the car ride or the way my mother told me the news. “The doctor had found some bad cells in my body and they needed to take them all out”, is all my mother said to me; but I never understood the gravity of the situation at the moment. As a young child, you don’t really understand the word “cancer” or the consequences or results that come along with it.

My mother visited several doctors every week, deciding which treatment to take to kill the cancerous cells. She decided to have a double mastectomy and she says she was very lucky that chemotherapy was not recommended for her. What she learned was, “every breast cancer diagnosis is different, and the options available for treatment vary case by case. What might work best for one person may not be the best choice for another.”

After the surgery, the doctors hoped that the cancer would be gone forever. However, my mother was diagnosed a second time with breast cancer in May 2008.
She underwent another surgery to remove the tumor as well as months of radiation.

Radiation was “scary” as my mother called it. She described it as, “this big machine that moves around your body directing radiation beams into your body”. Radiation isn’t physically painful however, but it left my mother’s skin very red and sore almost like a very bad sunburn you get from laying out on the beach for five hours.

Cancer has changed my mother’s life dramatically as well as mine. My mother said she now knows more about breast cancer than she ever wanted to know. The positive side she says is, “I’ve learned so many things and met so many people that I feel have made my life fuller and richer” and tries to be grateful for life everyday.

As a family we have made some major lifestyle changes. We try to work out as often as possible and have cut most diary products and do not eat red meat, although I do occasionally try to sneakily eat a hot dog or two at school when my parents aren’t around.

My mother and I have also volunteered more in cancer related organization such as the American Cancer Society. Since 2005 when my mother was first diagnosed, my mother and I have participated in Relay for Life. This past summer, we decided to create our own team.

Amy Wardenburg (11), her mother, my mother, and I created the group, “The Girls for the Girls.” Other girls and their mothers joined such as Cristina Jerney (11), Hannah Prutton (11), Molly Wolfe (11), and Cecilia Lang-Ree (11). Only being a first year team we raised over $4,000 that goes to help finding a cure for cancer.

I hope that from reading this people understand the impact that cancer has not only on the victim themselves but the loved ones and others in their life. I am grateful everyday that the cancer was found earlier and that my mother is still with me today. Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.”