I would like to nominate my sister Linda Black. She is a breast cancer survivor. This was not the biggest obstacle in her life, but is was the thunder in the storm. My sister's son at the age of 21 became a quadrapalegic. He was at a bar and there was an agrument over a pool table and a man charged him and broke his neck. My sister watched him suffer for 10 years unable to use his arms, legs, feed himself or take care of himself & then only to die a very painful death. She had just barely laid Eric to rest when she found out she had breast cancer. During this time my sister worked long hours at a demanding job taking care of her family & household & being the primary breadwinner. Her husband is in commercial real estate and that market has been depressed for several years. Here she had lost her son, working a demanding job and now she had breast cancer. She had to have a masectomy on her left side. It was very painful and she had difficult time mentally adjusting to the radical change in her body. However, just like after the death of her son, she was right back to work. She continued to have recontructive surgery in between working and was never able to take the time off to grieve her loss of her son and to mentally recover from her breast surgery. Linda is a giving person. Even when her life is so demanding, she is the first person to help others. She has offered her services in gathering donations for a doctor who would go once a year to a needy country. She would grocery shop for a friend who was terminal ill weekly. She is one of the strongest persons I know and it would be nice to recognize all that she has been through and all that she gives.

Signed,
Jeanne Babchuk