Cancer rates differ from state to state, as well as different types of cancer diagnosis. From statistics taken from the CDC from a study done in 2014, cancer incidence rates for Colorado were recorded at 398.8 per 100,000 people, while Florida’s were higher at 410 per 100,000 people. More specifically, however, Colorado’s breast cancer incidence rate was 124.9 per 100,000 people, while Florida’s breast cancer incidence rate was lower at 114.8 per 100,000 people. While Colorado’s overall cancer incidence rate is lower than Florida’s, Florida’s breast cancer incidence rate is lower than Colorado’s.
In December of 2012, living in Aurora, Colorado, Lori Cooney was diagnosed with breast cancer. Luckily, Lori had, as she describes, “her rock” in the form of her daughter, Ashlyn Cooney, who stood by her every step of the treatment and recovery process, was 13 years old at the time. Part of the reason Ashlyn was able to support her mother so completely was because she was enrolled in an online school, allowing her the freedom to work around her mothers’ illness.
However, Ashlyn never saw the illness as something she would choose not to be involved with. As Ashlyn describes, “I think love is caring about someone unconditionally.” She continued, “the things you do, you don’t do because you want to, you know that person would do the same for you.”
Three years after Lori’s full recovery, the Cooney family moved to Boca Raton, Florida to escape the harsh Colorado winter. However, just over one year later, in September of 2017 Lori was diagnosed with breast cancer, and Ashlyn stepped up to the plate, her notions of unconditional love driving her to dive, once again, into the depths of hell that the diagnosis foretold. Ashlyn said, “One of the biggest differences between the first and second time was the knowledge that came with it. I’d already seen it the first time, and when she told me she the second time, the first thing that came to mind was that I didn’t want to see her go through it again.”
Thanks to Ashlyn’s unending support and love for her mother, Lori has, again, made it through surgery and chemotherapy, and is currently undergoing radiation treatment, the last step in a journey that began over six months ago.
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