My little sister Debbie

My sister Debbie Newbill lost her fight with breast cancer early Saturday morning October 27, 2007 at the age of 46, surrounded by our parents, my daughter and myself.  She had never married and had no children, but dearly loved her niece and nephew, and her kitty Sylvester as well as her entire extended family. 

She was originally diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer in Dec 2004, discovered liver mets in Dec 2005 and was on many different chemo's with very little break from 2005 up until her death. 

She was the strongest, bravest person I've ever known, and fought this horrid sneaky disease with class. If will-power could have cured her... she would still be here.  She loved life and refused to let even cancer stop her from doing things she enjoyed. Even though she often didn't feel well during the last two years she traveled to Alaska and went fishing, visited Hawaii, Yosemite, Las Vegas, Reno, & the California redwoods...even the month before her death she went crabbing at Newport (running the boat while Dad pulled the pots, catching their limit of Dungeness crab), went camping on the Siletz river - where she played obstacle croquet with us and won.  The week before she died she drove herself to the coast (an hour away) and played penny slots at the casino.  At her last scan in Sept 2007, her cancer was still liver mets only and shrinking with treatment, but after her "regular" chemo treatment of Taxol, Carboplatin & Avastin on Oct 19 she developed "sudden" liver/kidney failure, spent one pain filled week in the hospital and then was gone.  We will miss her forever.