2018 Survivor Profile - Roseann Valletti

When Roseann Valletti was growing up, she would wax "giddy with excitement" as her birthday approached. But as she grew older, her birthday became "just another day."

In February 2008, the Valley Stream High School art teacher, then 49, received a phone call from her doctor that forever changed her perspective on birthdays. "The doctor said my biopsy results confirmed that I had cancer in both breasts," she recalled. "He assured me that stage O was the best kind of cancer to have and the most curable with the best survival rate."

Doctors recommended bilateral lumpectomies with radiation. But Roseann and her husband instead opted to "attack this cancer head-on with an aggressive course of action"- a double mastectomy.

With the support of her husband and two children, Roseann, a 10-year survivor, was "able to emerge victorious," she said.

One of the blessings of battling cancer, she says, was connecting with a woman whom she calls a "sister."

"Cancer brought me Maria," she said, referring to the friend she met at a support group sponsored by 1 in 9, the Long Island Breast Cancer Action Coalition. "We had the same cancer diagnosis and we live a mile and a half away from each other. The sisterhood that develops between 'breast friends' is truly a bond which transcends the disease."

Now when her birthday approaches, she looks forward to it with heightened anticipation. "I am once again giddy with excitement in anticipation of my upcoming birthday," she said.