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Conejo Valley Breast Cancer Survivor Tells Story To Help Highlight Awareness Event This Week

Her story is nothing short of inspirational. Joni Eareckson Tada has lived most of her life with a major disability.

Then, she’s faced two bouts with breast cancer. But the Conejo Valley woman hasn’t let the challenges stop her.

When she was 17, she was in a diving accident which left her a quadriplegic. Tada says she adapted to her disability decades ago. In fact, she founded an internationally known ministry based in Agoura Hills, Joni and Friends, to help people around the world with disabilities.

In recent years she found herself facing a new challenge. She was diagnosed with Stage Three breast cancer. Tada admits coming on top of being a quadriplegic, the breast cancer diagnosis was tough.

She underwent surgery and treatment at Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks. Her surgery and followup treatment went well. Still, she wasn’t done with breast cancer.  Earlier this year, she underwent another surgery, and more chemotherapy after additional cancer was detected. 

Tada says she’s had tremendous support from her family and friends, and the medical community.

She hasn’t let her rounds with breast cancer stop from her efforts to help others who need help. Breast Cancer awareness is the focus of a free event this weekend in Ventura County. It’s at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

Saturday’s free event sponsored by Los Robles Health Systems starts at 7:30 a.m. There are a series of speakers from 8 a.m. to noon, ranging from breast surgeons and radiation oncologists to experts on reconstructive surgery.

Lance Orozco has been News Director of KCLU since 2001, providing award-winning coverage of some of the biggest news events in the region, including the Thomas and Woolsey brush fires, the deadly Montecito debris flow, the Borderline Bar and Grill attack, and Ronald Reagan's funeral. 
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