Breast cancer has affected my life twice. My mom’s best friend found out that she had it when I was in seventh grade. Her daughter was about four and I remember having to spend a lot of my time watching her. The day she realized she had a lump, my mom came home from work and said that I had to watch Taylor. Her and Jane were going to the doctor. When they came home, my mom was crying. I knew something was very wrong. My mom told me Jane was sick and had breast cancer. I just looked at my mom, then I saw Jane and began to tear up. I ran to my room and held Taylor in my arms. Watching Jane lie in bed unable to do anything was so hard. She would try to put on a happy face when her daughter or me were around, but I could tell she was hurting. I could not imagine the pain she was going through.
Some nights I could hear her cry or yell from the pain. She did a good job hiding it until her hair began to fall out and everyone knew then that she had cancer. She told me one day that she knew the reasons that this had happened to her and that is was a wake up call for her. It was so hard to wait around and she her in pain and not able to do anything about it. She taught me that no matter what you are going through you can always make it through and that everything happens for a reason. The whole time she was going through the treatments and radiation, she did not once complain and she would always put her daughter before everything. She proved be a very strong and compassionate person. Sometimes when I am thinking that things could not get worse, I think about her and what she had to go through. She has taught me to put other people before me, which at times I know I do not, but I try, everyday to be more like her. She made a very big impact on my life.

The second time breast cancer came into my life was about two months ago. It was during the summer and my sister, Hailee, and I were not having a very good day, Trish, my step mom, and my dad came into the bathroom where we were getting ready and told us that it was not for sure yet, but they went to the doctor because she had found a lump in her breast. Hailee immediately began crying, and all I could think about was Jane. I did not want to have to see that same terrible event happen again to someone else who was so close to me. My dad and Hailee knew that I had been through this with Jane and were asking me questions. I did not know what to tell them. The situation with Jane was a bad case and she went through a lot of pain. I could not tell them that the same effects might happen to Trish. I would sit in my room and cry about it.
We were in the car coming home from shopping when the doctor called and told her she had breast cancer. I felt like I was paralyzed I just sat there; so many thoughts began running through my mind. Trish began to cry after getting off the phone, which was the first time I had ever seen her cry.
She has started going through chemotherapy and is beginning to lose her hair. If it bothers her, she does not ever show it. She has always put us, the kids, before everything. She has accepted the cancer and is going on with her life. She is still going to work and teaching at the gym. She has proven to be a very strong person. She shows me that no matter what you are going through in life you have to keep moving. She has also shown me to never give up no matter how hard times are.
Watching the disease happen to two people who are very important to me was and is still hard. Especially when you are looking at them and know they are hurting inside and there is nothing you can do. At the same time, it has taught me very valuable life lessons: no matter what is happening to keep moving, always put others before you, and that situations happen in life for a reason. I remember these lessons everyday and go through my life trying to follow these values, and pushing to be more like these two very strong and important women in my life.