At 28, Reporter’s Perfect Life Was Interrupted by a Terrible Diagnosis

Julie Dobbs, 28, was gearing up for a big year in her career as a sports reporter in Dallas, Texas, when the news came. She had just started doing sideline reporting. “Work was good, life was good, my hair was great…” she writes. She had a great relationship with her boyfriend and was having fun with her friends. Everything was good.

It was in the middle of all these wonderful things going on in her life that she noticed something amiss about her right breast. After several trips to different doctors, Julie finally got a biopsy, and a large malignant tumor was discovered. The tumor was 7cm by 5cm and growing quickly, and Julie was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer (IBC), a rare type of cancer that is often difficult to diagnose because of the subtlety of its symptoms.

The diagnosis was a shocking one. Julie was young and had no family history. But she was determined to beat her cancer!

Julie was undoubtedly expecting the treatment journey to be a difficult one, but there was something she wasn’t expecting—the massive outpouring of love and support from her friends and family. Her family and several of her friends travelled to her home from out of state to help her get through chemo, and cards and gifts poured in from those who couldn’t make it.

Her boyfriend’s mom, who had also been diagnosed with cancer and had finished treatment just five months before Julie’s diagnosis, even came down from Canada to see her and support her!

So many people were touched by Julie’s story, which opened the door for an awesome opportunity for her to raise awareness for breast cancer. She was asked to drop the ceremonial puck at #HockeyFightsCancer Awareness Night, which she considered a great honor.

As she continued with chemo, the hospital bills piled up, her hair fell out, and she had to get a wig. “Good thing I work with all boys,” she says on her first day back to work in the wig. “Nobody noticed.”

Life went on with the help of good friends and loving family, and the tumor began to shrink.

And then, while the whole family was together for Thanksgiving, this AMAZING thing happened!

Find out what the next big steps in Julie’s life are in the video below.

P.S. You might want to have the tissues handy.