“God bless you! Get this right” were the words Monica Rash “spoke” in October 2002, right before her surgery. A small nodule was found in her breast by an annual routine mammogram. With the diagnosis of invasive ductal carcinoma, this 56-year-old mother of two daughters began her life-altering journey.

After receiving the diagnosis, Monica went to work the next morning where she picked up the phone book and found the UT Breast Care Service at the University of Tennessee’s Cancer Institute. It was 7:30 a.m. when she made the call that found “her angel.”

“I am planning my funeral this morning,” Monica said as Linda Cruze, R.N., clinical service manager at UT Medical Center, listened from the other end of the phone. “Linda told me that breast cancer is not a death sentence. I knew from that phone call, that I came to the right place.” Cruze arranged all of Monica’s tests, labs and appointments within the same week that she had been diagnosed.

Monica brought an “army” with her the first time she met John Bell, M.D., who would be her surgical oncologist “It was good to have extra ears,” Monica reflected. “You just cannot imagine how everything was spinning in my head that day.”

Dr. Bell explained the options as he drew them out on the examination table’s paper covering. Her only options: lumpectomy or mastectomy.

On the day of her surgery, Monica entered in the surgical suite where she held a blue paper heart. As she lay down on the operating table, she placed the heart over chest. It read, “God bless you! Get this right!”

As she awoke from surgery, she found the heart on her chest and turned it over. It simply read, “I did the best I could. Dr. Bell.”

Monica has since made many new friends. She joined the Wellness Community’s 10-week Back to Wellness program, where she—along with 12 other breast cancer survivors—met twice a week for breast cancer wellness. The friendships she developed through the Back to Wellness program are ongoing. Even now, she continues to meet monthly with her new friends. They call themselves the “Ya-Ya club.” “We all still laugh and cry and applaud each other every time we have a successful check-up,” Monica laughed.

When asked how cancer changed her life, she responded, “I made my cancer journey from diagnosis through treatment to recovery look easy to others. I knew my friends, as well as my family, were concerned, and I did not want them to worry about me. “You are not alone in the fight for breast cancer,” Monica continued. “Early detection (monthly breast self exams and annual mammograms) are very important. Pray, do not be afraid and stay strong with a positive attitude.”

You can meet Monica at this year’s (2006) 10th anniversary for Race for the Cure on October 26. “I have done Race for the Cure every year, except the year I was sick,” Monica stated. “I plan to be there for this year’s event!”

Today, Monica is cancer-free. “Not only has cancer changed my life,” she concluded, “but it has made me become a better person for it—and I am glad to be alive!”