Katharine

If there's one quality I strongly posses, it's endurance - the act, quality, or power of enduring or bearing pain, hardships or stress; the ability or strength to continue to last. At the tender age of 12, my father had committed suicide. Eight years later, my mother passed away. At the age of 20, my life had fallen apart and I had lost the two most important people in my life. How does one move on after that? I had no choice but to pick up the broken pieces of my life and finish school. It was the hardest thing I have ever done.......until now.

I finished school in 2006 and landed a job as a paralegal in Philadelphia. I packed up my things and moved 300 miles away from home. It was now time to move on with the rest of my life. But just when I thought things were getting a little too easy... I received a phone call from my doctor one morning after getting a routine pap smear done. She said the results came back abnormal but not to worry - "we get a lot of abnormal paps that come back as nothing" she reassured me. She sent the samples to the lab for further testing. A few hours later, I get another phone call from my doctor - "you have Stage 2A cervical cancer."

Just when I thought things couldn't get worse.

How did this happen? I thought to myself. It has to be a mistake! It wasn't. Somehow, I contracted HPV. And somehow, it turned into cervical cancer. But the heartbreaking thing was that I had so many questions and very few answers. I didn't know much about HPV except that women get it by having sex. I always thought this couldn't happen to me. We all think it can't happen to us... but then it does, and it changes our lives forever.

I underwent external radiation therapy for about 8 months. My oncologists didn't see much of a change, but I didn't want to give up hope. I didn't want to give up the option of one day bearing children. I saw a therapist during my radiation and I was told that half of my road to recovery is how I approach my cancer. "If you believe you can overcome this, then you will overcome this!" So I started thinking positively. I dug deeper in myself to find the hope and faith I needed to beat this thing. But one day I realized that it wasn't about having hope and faith, it was about having a support system, a support system I had lost years ago - my parents.

Even though I have lost my parents, I haven't lost the love, care and friendship of my best friend of 12 years. With everything I have been through in my life, she has been the one person, the one friend to support me in life. She was there for me when my mother passed away and she has been with me during my battle with cancer. Her love and friendship defines what a best friend really is.

In December of 2007, my fight with cervical cancer advanced from a Stage 2A to a Stage 4A. The cancer had spread - fast. And no one caught it. And worst of all, they don't know how it happened. My oncologist gave me a 10% chance of survival with a hysterectomy. Without it, I was given 6 months to live.

It is now almost one year later and I am fighting the battle of my life. My cancer is now a Stage 3A thanks to invasive chemotherapy treatments and my new found prospective on my cancer and my life. My mission to beat this cancer has given me a reason to wake up in the mornings; it's given me a reason to take nothing for granted - not even the love and support of my best friend. I'm determined to beat this thing....and damnit, I will beat this thing!