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Throughout the month, we're asking for fans to share a story about a battle with breast cancer to raise awareness in October.
Today we highlight Cheryl Sheloski, of Staffrod, Va., a Redskins fan who wrote to us about her current battle with breast cancer after getting diagnosed last February.
"I turned 50 in December, 2014, and was ready to prepare for the golden years with my husband," Shelocki wrote. Two months later she was diagnosed with stage 2a breast cancer.
A year before that, she had a mammogram and was told something was visible, but doctors couldn't confirm what it was, not even a surgeon that she visited shortly after. He wanted to take an MRI, but Sheloski's insurance company denied the request based on her age and having no family history of cancer.
That August, she ruptured a disc in her neck, which delayed things further. Finally, in February, she received another mammogram and this time the image that originally showed was larger and had taken different shape.
"A biopsy was done and my husband and I were told that I had invasive lobular carcinoma," she wrote. "An MRI was now approved by the insurance company, which revealed a second tumor on the same side. After another biopsy, it was confirmed that the second tumor was invasive ductal carcinoma."
In March she underwent a mastectomy, but still tested positive for cancer.
"I am an anomaly," she wrote. "Everything that was supposed to be positive with me always went the opposite way."
Now, Sheloski is undergoing reconstructive surgeries and remaining positive, especially when she watches the Redskins each week and sees the pink sparkle in the crowd and on the field.
"I will never be cured but I will fight a good fight," she wrote. "I have a 16-year-old son and a husband that have been strong and proud. We fight this together. I feel sad for my family and friends - not me. It's my turn to take this journey and I do it proudly."
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