Erin Horst
Published: October 15, 2008

DUBUQUE- October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and people in Dubuque are becoming actively aware. This means anything from eating a Pink Ribbon Bagel at Panera Bread, to getting a strip of pink put in your hair.

“I know people with Breast Cancer, so this is my way of spreading awareness,” said Michaela Pease, a Loras junior who got pink in her hair.

Women all over Dubuque are joining in the pink hair fest to make others aware, but just three years ago, Jolene Kingeter became more aware than she ever wanted to be.

“It was a deep tumor inside the breast,” said Kingeter.

Jolene found out she had stage three breast cancer, which had spread to stage four in her lymph nodes.

“With stage four in the lymph nodes, it’s in your system, and they want to make sure they kill it,” said Kingeter.

This meant a lot of time spent in the hospital.

“They had to do six chemotherapies, three weeks apart,” said Kingeter.

Though the chemo was next to unbearable, this was one battle Jolene was determined to win.

“I just kept a positive attitude, and was not going to let it get me,” said Kingeter.

She found her driving force in her family.

“The hardest thing was telling my boys, and Nicholas said, well are you going to die? I’m like, well at some point I will die, but not by this, so he’s like, well then ok, we can handle this,” said Kingeter.

Jolene is cancer-free now, and has come out of her experience with a valuable lesson learned.

“Don’t take things for granted. If you want to do something you go do it, because if you’re sick, you can’t do things,” said Kingeter.

Erin Horst can be reached at Erin.Horst@lctv13.com