Story:

Sheila Nelson was living the good life.

She and her husband, Steve, were retired, traveling and enjoying time with their children and grandchildren.

Life had gotten so leisurely, in fact, that Sheila never got around to getting a new gynecologist when hers retired not long after she ended a 38-year career with United Parcel Service in 2012.

Then, toward the end of a week-long camping trip to Carpinteria in January 2016, Sheila sat down one morning to have a cup of coffee. As she leaned back into her chair and crossed her arms, Sheila felt a lump in her left breast.

"I was like 'Wow, what is that?,'" said Sheila, who hadn't had a mammogram in more than four years.

She showed her husband and they agreed the lump needed to be checked out by a doctor. They decided to follow through with plans to travel south from Carpinteria to meet daughter Rachelle Chapman and her family at Disneyland, and then continue to San Diego to visit their daughter Shannon Nelson.

Once the Nelson's returned to their Tulare home, Sheila got in to see Nurse Practitioner Maya Ricci at Visalia OB-GYN Medical Associates. That set off a chain of appointments that week that went from a mammogram to an ultra sound to a couple of biopsies to her diagnosis of breast cancer. Dr. Russell Dounies said the breast cancer had spread into Sheila's lymph nodes.

"It was wham-bam," Sheila said.

Sheila then met with Dr. Robert Havard, an oncologist at Sequoia Regional Cancer Center. Dr. Havard went over her diagnosis and laid out her treatment options.

Wanting a second opinion, however, Sheila elected to get checked out at City of Hope in Southern California. When the diagnosis and treatment plans at City of Hope matched those of Dr. Havard, Sheila decided to stay in her community first for access to care close to home at Sequoia Regional Cancer Center.

Sheila was pleased with the way Dr. Havard, radiation oncologist Dr. Youssef Hanalla and the entire staff at Sequoia Regional Cancer Center were focused on providing her quality care.

"I can't say enough about Sequoia Regional Cancer Center," said Sheila, 61. "They are amazing all across the board, from the front desk to the nurses and doctors. Simply amazing people. Kind, compassionate, you name it. They have the cream of the crop in there because they know how to treat people. They are just what you need in a situation like that."

Sheila said a special relationship developed between her and the woman who administered her chemotherapy treatments, nurse Senovia Banuelos, and that nurses Diana Perez and Angel Villafana made the 6 1/2 weeks she spent receiving daily radiation treatments as pleasant as possible. Sheila commended the care she received from all the staff at Sequoia Regional Cancer Center.

"You can't teach someone to be compassionate and caring. Either you have it or you don't,” said Sheila of Senovia, Diane and Angel. “It takes special people to even want to work in a cancer center. It's not a fun place to be. But you feel they want to be there. You definitely feel that. When the treatment was over, I missed all of them."

Once she was done with her treatments, Sheila and her husband returned to traveling.

Sheila's daughter, Shannon, threw her a big celebration in Culver City. Sheila, Steve and Shannon went to the Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena. And, they took a cross country trip in their trailer to visit daughter Rachelle and her family, who had relocated from Hanford to Jamestown, RI, as part of a military transfer for son-in-law Russ.

"We didn't plan anything and just went for it," Sheila said. "We had a wonderful time."