SAN ANTONIO -- Chemotherapy, radiation, and finally surgery to remove one of her breasts. That's just some of what one woman has gone through in her fight with cancer. But that's not all Christine Gilmore is struggling with. She also has multiple sclerosis.
Gilmore is the true definiton of a survivor. She was diagnosed with MS 10 years ago. Then, last year she was told she also had breast cancer.
"She is an inspiration to me and also a dear friend," said News 4 WOAI's Kristina De Leon. "I was doing a self-breast exam, you know, lifting up my arm and feeling around the breast and down at the bottom, and there was a little pea-size bump down there."
That pea-size bump turned out to be an aggressive cancer.
"I was scared to death," explained Gilmore. "I was like, 'Oh no. I don't want this.' I just was panicked. I mean, how can you not be when you hear the C-word?"
The 44-year-old single mom opted to have her breast removed.
"It just is what it is," Gilmore said, laughing. "You just learn to not really care about yourself. You know, you don't care what people think when they see you. 'Cause, basically, I've always been that way. Hey, you get what you get when you see me."
Gilmore is spunky, even through physical therapy two to three times a week for her MS. But her fight keeps her moving forward.
"If you don't have something to focus on, then you don't have anything," Gilmore added. "That's what makes people give up. Well, I'm not a giver-upper. I'm a fight-'til-the-end person. So that's what I'm doing."
Gilmore says her goals are to see her three teens get married and have children of their own. And she has gotten good news: Since the surgery, Christine's been told she's cancer-free.
