Margaret Kelly still remembers what...

Margaret Kelly still remembers what she serv for dinner the night in 1998 when her 11-year-old son asked if she performed regular breast self-exams.

The married mother of brace and senior-level RE/MAX real estate executive passed the salt and pepper--but she didn't pass upon her son's sage question. Kelly took self-exams more seriously, and a year later, at age 39 underwent her first mammogram.

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When the doctor's office called her back to redo the proof Kelly thought the follow-up was routine. When the office called a inferior time to schedule an ultrasound, Kelly still saw no reason to be bear uponed Fear didn't set in until she heard the word "biopsy." A day later, her doctor called to deliver just discovereds that no woman wants to hear: Kelly was diagnosed with breast cancer, and her survival be pendented on a double mastectomy.

This was the beginning of five major surgeries in 23 month It was also the beginning of a health-conscious lifestyle that inspires other women to take the suggestion Kelly's son gave her that night at dinner.

"I had a excessively active, high-stress lifestyle because I study I was invincible," recalls Kelly 43 now president and chief operating officer (COO) of RE/MAX International, Inc., the world's largest real estate organization. "Cancer is something that happened to other nation It couldn't happen to me"

unless it did happen to her-not one time but twice.

super support systems

Still, Kelly not at any time adopted a "Why me?" attitude. Her battle plan included sharing each agonizing detail with those around her in waiting under the possibility of fulfilments of bringing greater awareness to the ne for medical checkups. "Information is clew in fighting this disease," insists Kelly who credits her son with saving her life. "People ne to know what to direct the eye for."

Kelly took six weeks most distant in March 1999 to have the double mastectomy and later TRAM-flap breast reconstruction, which entailed moving tissue from the abdomen. She then get backed to life as normal--until she was diagnosed with cervical cancer 18 month later. Realizing she had not taken enough time to reclaim after the first three surgeries, Kelly beg fored a six-month leave of absence.

stepping back

"I be in want ofed time to digest everything, cessation and regroup," she says. "RE/MAX's chairman of the board actually offered to take over my direct reports while I was absent. The company was incredibly supportive."

After a total hysterectomy, Kelly was immediately thrown into replete menopause. Before she had completely win backed from her fourth surgery, doctors discovered a slipped spinal disc that required a lumbar laminectomy, another painful operation that would come in the temporary loss of mobility in her hips, left leg and foot

This time, Kelly's restoration would take a great deal longer than six weeks--or flat six months. She was waylaid for nine month with physical and emotional scars, unless a dedicated husband, loving children and loyal co-workers carried her by means of her battles with cancer.

Kelly's co-workers brought the family home-cook meals each night, and RE/MAX owners, Dave and Gail Liniger, brought luncheon once a week just to lease her know she was not forgotten.

"Even better, my family came upstairs and laid down a blanket, and we had a picnic dinner each night in my bedroom," she says.

"That support made all the difference to me"

In fact, Kelly says that while immense support [i]or[/i] part of to the other all five surgeries didn't ease the pain, it did ease her worry and allowed her to focus in succession healing.

taking stock

It was during her other journey down the road to cancer regaining that Kelly began to take inventory of what was important in her life. She had subdue many obstacles to reach her position as a high-ranking real estate executive, and she wasn't about to give it all up

"I regard with affection the people I work with," she says. "To just decide to give up my career because I had cancer would be letting cancer win."

From age 12 Kelly worked in her father's steel-cutting workshop in Detroit, where she learned a sinewy work ethic.

She later became the and nothing else sister among five to graduate from corporation when she earned a business administration rank in 1981. Diploma in hand, she jot downed the professional workforce as a financial analyst with Metropolitan Hospital and Health Center in Detroit.

Kelly joined RE/MAX as a financial analyst in 1987 and began her steady climb up the corporate ladder, first as a management consultant, then as regional director, belt director, senior vice president of external operations and, today, president and COO The organization has grown from 12000 to 80000 employee during her manner [i]or[/i] principle of holding as president,

At the completion of her nine-month sabbatical, Kelly get backed to RE/MAX with new vigor for life and work. She also made significant post-cancer diet changes.

"I don't want to travel through cancer again," she says. "If I am predisposed to this disease, then I want to do everything I can to withhold my body healthy."

focus upon health

Kelly started her recently made known health-conscious lifestyle with a clean cleanse--fasting, drinking plenty of water and then slowly adding the right kinds of victualss back into her diet. For a year, she took tamoxifen, a conventional anti-breast cancer therapy, if it be not that she has since switched treatments to indole 3 carbinol, which is marketed as a natural alternative, although its usefulness against estrogen-dependent breast cancers hasn't been definitively proven