Decca Knight's Courageous Story

 
Decca Knight is relatively new to Susan G. Komen for the Cure Greater Roanoke Valley—she just became involved in October of 2009.  But already “Team Decca” is the top fundraiser for the upcoming April 10th Race for the Cure with over 60 enthusiastic members and $7,100 in pledges—
and counting. 
 
It’s a testament to Decca’s fierce and unshakeable will that she’s fast closing in on an ambitious goal of $10,000—while she herself is fighting one of breast cancer’s most aggressive forms.
 
With no family history of cancer, the thirty-two year old was shocked when she was diagnosed with an “invasive and fast growing” form of breast cancer on October 13th 2009.   “On the scale that pathologists use, from a 1-9, I am an 8,” she writes on her Caring Bridge web site [http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/deccaknight/mystory].
 
Several major surgeries and rounds of chemo later, Decca is preparing for radiation treatment in the coming months and is looking forward to “being on the other side of this.” She hides her smooth head beneath a ever-changing swathe of colorful scarves and is getting used to the stares. Yet despite the exhaustion and frustrations of treatment, the emotional, physical and spiritual hardships inherent to her battle, Decca is more often than not seen tackling her challenges with a big, bold grin.  
 
What keeps her going? Friends, family… And humor. “I have so much support, it’s hard to get down and out,” she says.  
 
“My son thinks my bald head is awesome,” she says of her two-year-old with a laugh.  “It makes a really good racetrack.”
 
Decca took medical leave from her job as a counselor to fight cancer full-time, a job “she put all her heart into.  It’s nice,” she says of Race for the Cure, “to have something to else to put my heart into” in the meantime.
 
“I think you have to understand my family,” says Decca, referring to her unflappable and infectious positivity.  “My grandparents… were political refugees [during the second World War], living in the middle of Berlin, bombs falling everywhere. They led horrible, tumultuous lives before they got to America.  My grandmother, who today is 95, lives on Bent Mountain in a little cabin, and since I was young I was taught to be thankful for every little thing, to make the best of every situation.
 
“I get perspective in the chemo waiting room,” she adds. “I’m always the youngest person. There are people going through much worse. I focus on the positive—that it was found early and that we can do things to treat it.”
 
Look for Team Decca on April 10th at the Roanoke Valley’s Race for the Cure.  And if you want to support Decca you can join her Team when you register for the Race.