About
Cards for a Cure
"Cards for a Cure is an event like no other and each year it recognizes an amazing breast cancer champion. The event celebrates all cancer survivors and honors the memories of the ones who have passed, while benefiting Tallahassee Memorial Hospital's cancer programs. We invite you to join us in celebrating our 2013 Honoree and Champion, Erin Petscher."
~ Kathy Brooks ~
Erin's Story
Erin Petscher is a stay-at-home mother raising two daughters (a five-year-old and a two-year-old). She is upbeat and full of hope. But, in October 2011, at age 32, Erin noticed a lump that had seemingly developed while breastfeeding her youngest daughter. A month later she learned she had Stage 4 Inductive Ductal Carcinoma, and it had spread to her lymph nodes, lungs and spine. Statistically, Erin was quite young to develop breast cancer, and it is very rare for the disease to spread so quickly from the time of the initial diagnosis. She appeared to be a statistical anomaly. Her physicians would not commit on how long she would survive, but published data suggested one to five years. Erin and her husband, Yaacov, have a strong faith that sustains them in crisis, and so they did not let this news dim their hope.
Erin later discovered that her paternal grandmother died of the same disease, but prior to this diagnosis Erin had not been aware of any family history of breast cancer. She had always been healthy and no red flags had appeared during routine physical exams.
Initially, Erin and Yaacov had no family nearby to help when she began an aggressive treatment program. This burden was immediately eased by her father and mother moving to town, and the outpouring of help from the community. People ranging from close friends to complete strangers sent notes, gifts, money, and food. Erin created a blog and asked for prayers on her behalf, and soon people from all 50 states and 11 different countries were praying for complete healing.
Erin visited several physicians with the hope of finding a promising new treatment or a different opinion about her diagnosis. However, every expert quickly told her there was no cure, no chance of being cancer-free, no hope.
She went through aggressive chemotherapy that targeted the primary tumor and her lungs. There wasn't a treatment goal for reaching inside her spine to kill the cancer there. Thus, a large group began praying specifically that the cancer inside those vertebrae would disappear. Her next PET scan results returned with news that brought real hope. After no surgeries and just three chemotherapy treatments, all the metastases were gone! By the time Erin had a bilateral mastectomy at TMH, and completed chemotherapy, her pathology report and follow-up PET scan showed she was cancer-free.
Erin has been cancer-free for almost a year and is grateful for the new outlook she has on life. She says, "I know that the physicians who were put in my path were wise and all the medication helped dramatically. I thank God for my healing and extended life and I am very aware that so few people have encouraging stories like this to tell." Erin feels that her new job is to spread hope to those who don't have it, and is grateful for every day she gets to do so.
The reason this benefit was created...
Click on the Youtube link and press play to view an inspirational tribute to Kathy Brooks' fight and how she faced breast cancer head on while pregnant.