[Joanne S]

I was born and raised in a wonderful Detroit neighborhood. I am 100% Greek and the first in my family to marry a non-Greek. I have a wonderful husband--been married 23 years and I have two lovely daughters. My eldest is 22, she attends Wayne State University in Detroit; and my youngest is 17,a senior in High School.

The city gradually changed for the worse much through my adult years so when my husband retired from the Detroit Police Department in 1994, we moved from Detroit to a Detroit suburb I have worked for the same health insurance company in Downtown Detroit for 32 years. I had many different jobs through the years; most recently I worked as a mainframe programmer for hospital claims systems. Only a couple weeks before my breast cancer diagnosis, I was promoted to a systems analyst. Sadly, I started sick leave the same day I was to start my new job. I started chemo immediately after my BC dx 09/2006; unfortunately I've not worked, but been a total couch potato ever since then.

I'm currently in physical therapy because I've been inactive for so long (chemo, radiation, 3 surgeries and complications) so now I'm severly deconditioned. I am now finally working towards gaining back my strength and endurance and losing weight in hopes of getting back to where I was before cancer.

Hobbies before BC: I loved gardening, shopping, home decorating and creative crafts; such as, porcelain doll-making, wreath making, decorating/painting sweatshirts, making beaded fruit plates/arrangements, silk flower arrangements, and lastly making jewelry using sterling silver, Swarovski crystals, stones/beads.