Sterling woman battling cancer: Upbeat attitude getting her through intense radiation

Carol Richards thought she had cancer beat. She thought it was just a cough.

The 39-year-old Rock Falls High School grad was diagnosed in 2001 with breast cancer. She went through the treatments; she had the surgeries. Doctors gave her a clean bill of health and, every subsequent year, her blood tests came back negative.

So when she developed a cough about 8 months ago, she thought it was just a summer cold. When she couldn’t shake it, though, she relented and went to the doctor.

Early this fall, she learned the cancer had returned with a vengeance. It had spread to her liver, brain, lungs and bones.

Her treatment plan is intense: Radiation five days a week since the beginning of the month.

If doctors can shrink the tumor in her brain enough, they’ll operate on it in mid-November. An equally intense chemotherapy treatment plan will begin immediately after the surgery.

“I mean, it’s going to be a rough road, but I’ve got to get it started,” Richards said. “Hopefully, everything works out; hopefully, everything shrinks and we can get it under control and keep it under control for the next couple of years.”

Her fiancé, Rock Stone, 51, said Richards has stayed upbeat throughout the ordeal.

“It’s been hitting me harder than her,” Stone said. “She’s going through it better than I am. This hasn’t really dragged her down yet, but she’s getting really tired.”

Stone was there through Richards’ first battle with cancer; the two have been together for more than 10 years. He hopes her attitude will help keep her strong.

“It’s a miserable deal, though. You can’t go through too much more than what she’s going through.”

He, like Richards’ parents – dad Ralph and his wife Linda Richards of Polo, and mom Kay and her husband George Miller of Florida – worry about finances.

Richards was laid off from her job of 10 years at Rock River Provision earlier this month.

“Due to the brain tumor, of course she can’t drive,” her father said. “She worked in the butcher shop there and, of course, she can’t cut meat any more.”