” Although the cancer hadn’t spread to her lymph nodes, Rentz still needed to beat stage 1 breast cancer. While the most effective treatment was a combination of radiation and oral medication, Rentz refused the medication because it could cause infertility.
“Even if I was going to lose my life, I was going to have children,” Rentz said. In 2004 , after spending two months undergoing grueling radiation treatments, Rentz was cancer –free and cleared to get pregnant, which was perfectly timed news, she said, since she had unknowingly already conceived her first two children, now ages 7 and 5. She received her Ph.D. in 2006, and began her own business helping at risk youth in 2008 today, she actively volunteers with the American Cancer Society.
There are so many young women out there who don’t self –check or get checked,” Rentz said. “I can’t sit back and be silent because I realize I didn’t overcome this battle alone.” Despite her victory over cancer, Rentz said she gets yearly mammograms because she knows the cancer can come back. “After getting though cancer, there is nothing I can’t accomplish,” Rentz said. “I just plan to take one day at time.”
"I was going to have children"
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