In Her Own Words: Diana Ballinger -- Poet, Mom, Cancer Survivor

Editor's note: This blog will be dedicated to the Relay for Life event in Danville. Relay for Life is a volunteer-driven fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. This year's event in Danville takes place on July 28 at . Residents can donate to the Danville team, join a team, or start their own team to help raise funds for many aspects surrounding cancer including cancer research, cancer prevention and cancer awareness.

One of the main aspects of this blog, beyond keeping you updated on the Relay for Life event in Danville, is to put a spotlight on many of the cancer survivors in the community. It will be bringing you several survivor stories, written in their own words.

If you are a cancer survivor yourself and would like to tell your story, reach out to Danville Patch editor Terry Parris Jr. at terry.parris@patch.com.

Today begins the first blog post of cancer survivor stories in lead up to the Relay For Life.

We want to put a real face on this disease that affects so many in our community. Diana Ballinger is one of our survivors that we celebrate each year at Relay For Life.

This year we will celebrate her and all the survivors in our community the weekend of July 28 at San Ramon Valley High School.

Here is Diana Ballinger's story written in her own words:

The year 2008 began with me feeling good about just having attended my 40th high school reunion and looking forward to life and what lay ahead. But that all came to a screeching halt when I found a lump in my left breast that February.

What followed seemed almost like an out of body experience. I began a year of tests and surgeries and chemo and radiation and Arimidex and with countless side effects. Then more treatments and medications for those. When it was over I didn’t recognize myself. I felt so out of place with everyone else in my life.

I quickly connected with other survivors and with their encouragement, published a book of poems I had written to help me get though that first year with cancer. In 2009 my mammogram resulted in another breast cancer scare, more tests and biopsies and a metal marker implanted in my left breast so the area could be watched.

Shortly after that, at the end of 2009, they discovered my first basal cell cancer -- a form of skin cancer -- on my forehead and that resulted in two days of Mohs and plastic surgery and a swollen, stitched up face that made me want to run even further from any mirror.

But I healed.

Since, doctors have found two more basal cells -- in my neck and my back -- but these were more easily treated. In 2010 just as my 17-year-old daughter was preparing to start college at California Polytechnic State University, they discovered an 8-centimeter tumor in her left breast. She came home from college at Christmas to have a lumpectomy and we were thrilled to be told the tumor was benign. She has healed and is thriving in college life.

The thing that struck me most going through cancer was how isolated and alone it makes you feel. Reaching out to other survivors by participating in the Danville Relay for Life in 2010 and 2011 gave me a profound sense of HOPE. Sharing the weekend with these courageous people who had gone through their own cancer journeys was inspiring and humbling. There were so many stories that touched my heart and I knew that the Relay would be an important part of my life forever.

I pray for the day a cure is found for this horrible life changing disease, but until it is, the Relay offers Hope, Awareness and a chance for survivors and their families to come together to make a difference.

My life continues to be filled with new health scares but I am not giving up because after surviving cancer, I feel I have so much that I still want to give in life before it is over and Relay for Life lets me do just that. It allows me to share my story, poems and listen to others and offer hope.

Diana Ballinger will be doing a reading and book signing at Read Booksellers in Blackhawk Plaza on Thursday, May 24 at 6:45 p.m. Proceeds will go towards the ACS Danville Relay for Life.