Marie Martinez

It was my senior year of high school when my mom was diagnosed. When I actually found out that she had this disease, it was by accident. I was going to her room and I heard her talking on the phone. So I stopped and listened in for a moment and heard her tell one of her friends the heart breaking news. At the moment I heard the words "breast cancer" come from my mom's mouth, a wave of fear came over me. Then all of a sudden a wave of peace came over me and I knew that my mom was going to fight this obstacle and beat it. God was telling me it was not her time to go, her work was not finished. She was a working mother of two teenage daughters and a wife. She was going through radiation and had lost all her hair, but through it all she continued to be there for me in one of the most important years of my life. Never once did she give up. She stayed positive and continued to have a strong faith in God. I am so proud of my mom and cannot image life without her. And every time I see her walk in the sea of survivors at the Race for the Cure, I cry and thank God for the triumph of these remarkable women. Marie Martinez, my mom, has been a survivor for eight years.