Attitude is Everything in St. Michael Woman's Cancer Fight

St. Michael mom Tammy Evans was first diagnosed with breast cancer three years ago.

She fought back hard, had a double mastectomy and got right back to living her life with her four children.

This past May though, bad news struck again and Evans was once again diagnosed with breast cancer.

"I had been told there was a 7 percent chance it would come back, but never thought it would happen to me," Evans said earlier this week. After a second double mastectomy, Evans was to start 30 days of radiation at Park Nicollet in St. Louis Park.

"It's nearly 45 minutes one way, and then to have to go everyday," she said.

Evans wasn't too excited about the news, but her best friend Pam Pitman knew what they had to do.

"Let's have fun with it," Pitman said she told Evans right away.

So the two decided to plan out theme days and just make the most of the situation.

"We made a list of themes like princess day and cowboy hat day," Pitman said. Just three days after the women started their theme days, an 82-year-old man was on his last day and asked them to have a stilleto day.

"So we did," Evans said. "We couldn't change the circumstances but we could change our attitude about it."

For 30 days straight the women came, and the group grew–soon calling themselves the "Rad Pack". Officials at Park Nicollet had never seen anything like it.

"There were several patients who were very ho-hum about the happiness but they couldn't resist for long," Radiation Therapy Manager, Edwin Visalden said citing he thought'd he'd seen it all.

"We just put a lot of smiles on a lot of faces" Evans said.

Eventually the "Rad Pack" grew to nearly 20, with many staying even after their treatment was done. Some of them have since decided to volunteer and help bring joy into other's lives who are going through treatment. All because of two spunky, happy women from St. Michael.

As for Evans, she's completed her 30 days of radiation, and on August 13 will move forward with a tissue tranplant. You can follow along her breast cancer journey on her Caringbridge site at http://www.caringbridge.org/tamaraevans