Sept 11 - Photo a Day - Hero

Laura York - The Cancer Assassin!

This photo is a cheater... My biggest hero, Laura, lives in Portland, Oregon, so I can't physically take her picture.  However, I must share her heroic story with you, so I grabbed her newest Facebook profile photo, knowing that if I were there, I'd shoot one JUST like this!!!

Have you ever thought about what you would do if you heard your doctor say, "You have Cancer..."?

I imagine every one of us knows or has known someone--or many someones--who's heard that diagnosis (maybe it was you). Each person has had to fight it (or not) in whatever way seemed right for him or her. Cancer's an insidious, terrifying disease, and once the words leave the doctor's mouth, everything changes -- not only for the patient, but for everyone with whom the news is shared.

Oddly (because of our fab connection), Laura and I have only met "in person" once. A mutual friend bought her a massage gift certificate many years ago when we both lived in Seattle, and we just clicked. So, when I learned that this incredibly healthy young woman had been diagnosed with Stage 4 Liver Cancer -- the last stage, which is generally accepted as a death sentence--it literally rocked my world. (Which was nothing compared to what it did to hers.)

Over the past two years, I've followed Laura's journey closely via her blog and Facebook postings. She's certainly not the only one I've known to beat cancer (my personal list, thank God, includes both of my parents), but she is the only person I know who literally assassinated a deadly disease when it was at its worst. Of course she had lots of help, but the difficult choices she made and 100% committed to makes her a hero in my eyes.

Along the way she's been studying, researching, learning and sharing all kinds of things that support others fighting cancer, and can help keep the rest of us from ever having to hear those horrible words. Because, as Laura would say, "Cancer Can Suck It!"