In my family, I have three older sisters. Amy and I are closest in age.
We both went to Eastern High School in Voorhees, New Jersey and spent countless hours playing tennis. That was then.
Now Amy is a freelance writer in Virginia, a wife to Jason Weaver, and a mother to 6-year-old Elizabeth and 3-year-old Alex.
Everything seemed to be perfect. There was no history of breast cancer so when Amy found a lump on her left breast, she was shocked.
"I knew pretty much right away that it was not good," Amy said.
An ultrasound and biopsy revealed it was cancer. Amy was told the news over the phone.
"I hung up the phone and Jason was on a plane out to Colorado and my girls were expecting dinner soon and I thought I can't have cancer, I have to make dinner," Amy said.
But reality quickly set in as Amy went for more testing and chose a medical team. She was officially diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer.
But even at that moment of fear that we all felt, Amy stayed positive. She focused on her treatment which includes surgery, 16 weeks of chemotherapy and 5 weeks of radiation.
Plus, she made sure to celebrate the joys in life like Elizabeth's kindergarten graduation. She drew strength from her friends and family, especially her girls.
"It was important to me to not just fall apart in front of them and they make that easy; they're fun, they like to get you outside, get you doing things," Amy said.
After 10 long months, Amy is now almost done her treatment. The fear part has passed.
Now we are all very thankful of the walks, runs and other fundraisers that have led to new treatments that have helped to save thousands of lives each year; that now includes my sister.
"It's amazing, I do these walks and runs every year and I never really thought about it, certainly it will have more meaning to me when I participate this year," Amy Said.
Her goal is to be back up to running at the Thanksgiving Day run that we do every year. It raises money for breast cancer research.
I'll have more on my sister's story and Beating the Odds Against Breast Cancer this Sunday during a live webchat starting at 9:00 a.m.
