Nancy Mack

  
This is my good friend Nancy Mack. I’ve known her since we were young co-eds at Northern Illinois University. She’s brainy and funny in a good, quirky kind of way. She's creative, beautiful, passionate and caring. She has great taste in music and twirls on the dance floor. She loves cycling and is a much better skier than me. She moved to Minneapolis back in 1998 and lives on a beautiful lake in a cute house that I’m jealous of. Last October she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

She had always had her annual mammograms. It was breast cancer awareness month and she heard that one sign may be a dimple on your breast. She noticed a dimple. She went in and discovered through a sonogram she had a stage 3 tumor. She started 8 weeks chemotherapy on Thanksgiving. She shaved her head 1 week in before her hair would fall out on its own. Her doctor shaved his head too in solidarity. She had a double mastectomy in March. She began radiation in May and has 2 more weeks to go. She’ll have chemo for atleast another year. She’s still smart, funny, creative, beautiful, quirky, passionate and caring. She just can’t ride her bike right now. But she will soon.

Here are some facts she would like you to know:
• Breast Cancer is the leading cause of death for women 15-54
• 11,100 women under 40 are diagnosed with breast cancer every year
• One in every 229 women between 30-39 will be diagnosed with breast cancer in the next 10 years
• Breast cancer in pre-menopausal women can be more aggressive

She’s my good friend Nancy. You would be lucky to have a friend like Nancy.

To see what we’ve been up to in Minneapolis see below.