The news came as a complete surprise to Delaney-Smith, who had always prided herself on never getting sick.
"I am the epitome of health, I don't even get a cold," Delaney-Smith said. "It was shocking [and] nothing I ever expected."
But while personal sickness might have seemed foreign to Delaney-Smith, cancer is one particular ailment with which she is all too familiar.
In addition to having a brother who is living with skin cancer, Delaney-Smith has lost both of her parents to the disease. Her father passed away from lung cancer when she was five, and her mother died of bone marrow cancer.
Also, in a cruel twist of fate, since Delaney-Smith's diagnosis last winter, both her sister and her sister-in-law have been diagnosed with breast cancer.
Her sister's case was severe enough to necessitate a mastectomy.
"I am sure that I am her resource," Delaney-Smith said. "I prepare her for how she is going to feel with the chemotherapy."
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