'I Know I Will Survive': Woman, Cat Fighting Breast Cancer Together

In June, Meg Sorgdrager went from Bucks County to visit family in Minnesota. The 21-year-old hadn’t been to her hometown to visit with family for more than a year.

Around that time, she tells Patch, she found several lumps her both breasts. So her mother made her an appointment with a doctor hundreds of miles from her home in Morrisville.

After a CT scan, two mammograms, and a diagnostic ultrasound ”they ruled out cancer” and diagnosed her with a fibrocystic breast condition, Sorgdrager said.

”This came as a true relief,” she recalled.

But that relief was short-lived.

Four months later, Sorgdrager received the Earth-shattering news: at 21, she has breast cancer.

She found out this month, when she went to a plastic surgeon for a consultation regarding cosmetic procedures.

“Upon his initial exam, he stumbled upon the lumps, I told him the diagnoses I received,” she recalled. She was referred to an Oncologist. Another diagnostic ultrasound was conducted as well as another mammogram. A biopsy followed.

The results came back as cancerous.

Now, she’s 1,300 miles from home and fighting Breast Cancer Stage 2B.

But her health isn’t the only thing on her mind. Her cat, 12-year-old Madison, is also fighting a similar battle.

For a year, Madison has been fighting mammary cancer that has metastasized throughout her body. Mammary cancer only happens to 1 in every 4,000 cats, Sorgdrager explained.

Her pet’s health plays a critical role in her own happiness, she said.

“Every time I’m down, sick, or just have the case of the blues she is right there cuddling me, checking on me, and giving me her adored kisses. Madison is the only part of home, I have here, if I lost her I honestly don’t know what I would do. I’m in tears even contemplating that situation,” Sorgdrager said.

They are both facing critical treatments in the near future.

“I begin chemotherapy in a little more than a weeks time to hopefully start shrinking the cancer, in my breasts, and lymph nodes. Chemotherapy will be followed by a double mastectomy, then radiation. I will be on a dose-dense chemo regime which means I will be receiving treatments every two weeks, instead of the standard every three weeks,” said Sorgdrager, who is a personal trainer and a former model.

Madison needs the cancerous tissue removed. “This includes the whole gland, and draining of her lymph nodes. If they find that her tumor involves several glands she will have a radical mastectomy, which means she will have multiple glands and the associated lymph nodes removed,” Sorgdrager said.

Sorgdrager has recently set up a GoFundMe page to help pay for medical expenses for her and Madison’s battle against cancer.

While she tries to be positive about the situation, Sorgdrager admits certain things, like going bald from the treatments, haunts her ”every second.”

“Life isn’t fair, but we are dealt the cards we are dealt for a specific reason. You never think something is going to happen to you, until it does. Although I know I will survive this, I’m just scared of the moments of where I don’t think I will.”

Click here to visit Meg&Maddy’s Cancer Battle GoFundMe Page.

(PHOTO: GoFundMe)