Debbie McLeod was your average 40-year-old homemaker living in Pennsylvania in the summer of 1993 when the results of a routine mammogram revealed breast cancer. Debbie and her doctor decided the best form of treatment was a lumpectomy followed by chemo-therapy and radiation. Debbie was also put on the drug tamoxifen, an antiestrogen drug, for a period of five years. Life slowly began to return to normal for Debbie, and she and her husband, Greg moved to Somerset in 2005.

Thirteen years after the first diagnosis of breast cancer, another mammogram revealed there was cause for concern. This time it was a different type of breast cancer, ductal breast cancer. Debbie and her doctor decided the best form of treatment was a partial mastectomy followed by radiation.

­Debbie’s last treatment was January 31, 2007. Now at the age of 54, she is back on the medication tamoxifen.

Debbie credits the love and support of Greg, her husband of 32 years, her two sons, friends and her church family with helping her through her journeys with cancer.

She says the American Cancer Society is a valuable organization with many helpful resources for patients. During treatments, Debbie participated in the American Cancer SocietyLook Good…Feel Better program which is designed to support a woman’s self esteem with make-up tips and the use of wigs. She also participated in the American Cancer Society Reach to Recovery program which pairs up breast cancer survivors with women going through treatments. The volunteers can offer understanding, support and hope. Both of these programs are open and available to the general public.

Debbie offers this advice to those diagnosed with cancer. “It is beatable,” she said. “Cancer can happen to anyone even those with no family history. Educate yourself. Don’t be afraid to tell people you have cancer, that’s where your support comes from. Hang in there.”

In both breast cancer cases, Debbie never felt a lump in her breast. It was only through mammograms that Debbie was diagnosed. Debbie encourages ever women to have a mammogram each year.

Debbie, now a 14-year breast cancer survivor, and her husband will be walking in this year’s American Cancer Society Relay For Life on the United States Penitentiary team and she will proudly wear her purple survivor’s t-shirt.

Money raised from all Relay For Life events support American Cancer Society research, education, advocacy and patient service programs. It was American Cancer Society funded research that discovered that tamoxifen, the drug that has saved Debbie’s life, can prevent breast cancer.

For more information on breast cancer, contact the American Cancer Society at 1-800-ACS-2345 or www.cancer.org. Relay For Life of Pulaski County will be held on Friday, June 15 at 6 p.m. at Somerset Community College.