Alisa B.

My name is Alisa and I am a lung cancer survivor. I guess you can say my lung cancer journey started before I was born. My mom, my maternal grandfather and many of his siblings all died of lung cancer.

I was diagnosed with Stage 3 lung cancer at 43 years of age, in July of 2000, just a few months after my mom passed away of lung cancer. It still boggles my mind to this day that I was taking care of my mother during her last days while at the same time the same tumor was growing in my lung. I had a third of my lung removed and followed up with chemotherapy.

I am a single mother of twin boys who were 10 years old at the time. They were in elementary school and I didn't even know if I would be there for their grade school graduation. Thanks to God and the Universe and my amazing doctors, I lived to see my twins graduate from college. My next goal is to live to see them employed :)

This is not a journey I chose, but the truth is I've grown so much and have such an appreciation of every day and the friends I now call family that I've met through lung cancer have enriched my life beyond words!