Humor and lots of emotional support from her team of caregivers, family, friends, and co-workers — and from a group of other young breast cancer survivors — helped Lela McKenna go through a very aggressive treatment plan to improve her odds of cancer survival.

Lela was diagnosed with breast cancer just five days before her first wedding anniversary. She was 33. “It was just about the last thing I wanted to hear,” she says.

“All I could think of was ‘What’s going to happen to my marriage?’”

Then, just as she was thinking there wouldn’t be an anniversary celebration, her co-workers arranged a “nice little getaway” for the couple. “I think it has been that kind of support, throughout the past two years, that has helped us get through this,” she says, recounting numerous instances when people have reached out.

In turn, says Lela, “My biggest thing right now is being there for someone else, even if it’s just to say ‘Drink mint tea — it will settle your stomach.’”

Her husband shares her attitude. He recently arranged for charitable donations to go from his vending route to the Susan G. Komen Foundation, Maryland.

It was 2003 when Lela found a lump and her gynecologist sent her for a mammogram. “When the radiologist recommended a biopsy,” says Lela. “I ran out and called Dr. Kristen Fernandez [breast surgeon]. When the biopsy came back positive, I made the decision, with my husband, to remove the whole breast.”

Lumpectomy wasn’t an option in her case. In fact, diagnosed with a very aggressive cancer, she decided on a double mastectomy with immediate breast reconstruction. Chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and a 52-week clinical trial followed. “I was determined to be a survivor,” she says.

Treatment kept her coming to the Bel Air Oncology Center. “From that first day everyone made me feel good — so supported,” she says. “Donna [Tenly, R.N., O.C.N., patient care manager] sat me down, took my hand, and explained how everything was going to work out…and if you didn’t have a smile on your face coming in for your treatments, Sandy [Woodring, R.N., O.C.N.] would put one there. Bernadette [Trujuillo, R.N., O.C.N.] helped me get on the clinical trial and followed me through my whole journey.”

Through BCAUSE (Breast Cancer And U Support and Encouragement), Lela also became friends with 10 other breast cancer survivors under the age of 40. “We get together, not so much to cry, as to hang out and laugh. The support you can get from another woman who has gone through this same thing is amazing. I was very lucky to have all the support I’ve had. Not everyone has that. That’s a reason I’d like to bring attention to the Bel Air clinic and the Cancer Institute. They are supportive of everyone that comes through their doors, and that means a lot.”

Read more patient stories from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Cancer Institute