Olympic Gold Medallist figure skater and breast cancer survivor Peggy Fleming spoke at a Surviving and Thriving luncheon sharing her breast cancer experience. Fleming told the audience of breast cancer survivors attending the luncheon that the breast cancer diagnosis was a shock considering her identity as an athlete was based on health.

After the shock wore off, she gathered her inner resources and faced breast cancer with the same skills that had taken her to the heights of athletic excellence and accomplishment.

Fleming took on breast cancer as a competition she was intent on winning. "Cancer doesn't care who you are or how well you take care of yourself," she said. "It just happens."

As an eight-year breast cancer survivor, Fleming currently works as an ice skating commentator on ABC and ESPN. She tells her story as a way to inspire and enlighten other women facing a breast cancer diagnosis and breast cancer survivors living beyond breast cancer. To read more about her appearance at the Surviving and Thriving luncheon, read Former skater describes fight against cancer by Laura Hensley.

One of the ways I have been touched by, and admire, breast cancer survivors is the willingness they have to share their personal breast cancer story in the context of a larger life of self discovery. In 2000, Fleming had her book published, The Long Program: Skating Toward Life's Victories, in which she tells her story from the time of life as a little girl being raised by a disciplinarian father who drank and domineering mother who controlled those around her, to her marriage, her skating career and her treatment for breast cancer. As a breast cancer survivor, the strength and hope I took from breast cancer survivors as a newly-diagnosed breast cancer patient sustained me and nurtured me during the most difficult point in my life, and will remain an immeasurable gift of healing.