Survivor Series

Six years ago, when Cedar Lake resident Molly Bernotus went to get her wisdom teeth removed, the oral surgeon found something in her jaw during an X-Ray. Thinking that it was some kind of cyst, the oral surgeon sent a biopsy to a lab to be examined....

Once she got it back, Kelley Weisenbacher decided to use her voice to compel people to actively attend to their physical health through regular checkups with a doctor. After being diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2017, Weisenbacher realized how...

As a nurse at Methodist Hospitals, Marsha Smith encounters illness and disease on a regular basis. This in no way prepared her for her own breast cancer diagnosis. Smith discovered a lump in her breast while she was taking a shower. Initially, she...

Combating cancer takes courage, resilience, and, in Rosanne Loughmiller’s case, earrings. Loughmiller is the Director of Business Development at Hartsfield Village and Community Home Health and was shocked to learn she had cancer on December 7,...

Kimberly Hendricks said her adopted children are the kids she was meant to raise and love. She is grateful for her children, but there was a time when she feared she may never be able to have the family she had dreamed...

Toni Miller is known among friends and family as the butterfly lady, a nickname bestowed when she first discovered she had cancer, and a welcome sign of hope at the time. Miller’s battle against cancer began the way one would expect: with pain. Her...

At 30 years old, one of the last things Nicholas Petralia expected to encounter was a bout with cancer, but when he was diagnosed with stage two testicular cancer back in 2010, that very battle became his reality. “I still considered myself young...

“I never would have thought to help others in this way if I hadn’t gone through it myself,” said Tonya Hill-Rios, a Portage resident and cancer survivor. “It’s been more eye-opening to me than anything else in my life.” When Hill-Rios was...

Prestin Butcher’s battle with cancer was sudden and dramatic. Just a fifth grade kid, he started getting severe headaches disrupted his ability to take part in swim practice. His mother took him to the doctor where they did a CT scan that showed a...

Nancy Babich (top, center) with family Nancy Babich just doesn’t have time for the negativity. She never has. Don’t get her wrong – being diagnosed with breast cancer wasn’t easy, and the bad thoughts certainly crept in at times. But she...