November marks the beginning of Lung Cancer Awareness Month.

According to the lung cancer foundation, lung cancer “kills almost twice as many women as breast cancer and more than three times as many men as prostate cancer” and it accounts for 27% of all cancer deaths, more than the next three deadliest cancers (breast, prostate, and colorectal) combined.

One in 17 women will be diagnosed with lung cancer, and Mrs. Rhonda Eppenger, a substitute teacher and FCA sponsor, diagnosed when she was 51 years old, was one of those women.

Even though she had the disease that kills 198 women per day, she “…never felt down, and every day was a bless[ed] day to be alive.”. Although she had stopped smoking 15 years before doctors noticed a spot on her lung. In addition to smoking and secondhand smoke, other causes include air pollution, radon, and asbestos.

Mrs. Eppenger — now 63 — believes her cancer is currently in remission (symptoms of cancer have lessened or have disappeared). Her story serves as a reminder that cancer can affect anyone.