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"An estimated 212,920 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to occur among
women in the United States during 2006. An estimated 40,970 women will die
from breast cancer."
- American Cancer Society Cancer Facts & Figures 2006

As a child Shawna watched as her mother, only 29 at the time struggled to beat Breast Cancer. Now, Shawna's three children have spent this past year watching THEIR 26 year old mother struggle to beat her own battle with Breast Cancer. Growing up Shawna and Steve spent their summers playing together and eventually started dating in high school and marrying almost immediately after. They knew they wanted a family and luckily for them, started one immediately.

It was always in the back of Shawna's mind that she may one day face the same horrifying experience as her mother, which is why five years ago she contacted her local chapter of The American Cancer Society and began organizing Relay for Life Walks, in honor of her mother. On the morning of last year's walk, Shawna woke up and began to prepare for her long day when to her horror, she found a lump. Three weeks before her 26th birthday, Doctors confirmed what she feared - she had Breast Cancer. Never one to surrender to defeat, Shawna was determined not to miss this year's Relay for Life Walk, and although she was undergoing her own cancer treatments she still managed to raise over $70,000.00. To date, she has raised close to half a million dollars and has stated that Relay for Life is now her life's calling and she is determined to help find a cure for Breast Cancer so that her greatest fears ­ that her two daughters will someday have Breast Cancer - never comes true.

This past year has been excruciating for Shawna. She has had chemo treatments, radiation and finally had to have a bi-lateral mastectomy and a total hysterectomy. Despite everything she has had to deal with the last thing Shawna wanted was for her kids' lives to be disrupted in any way. So, she put on a brave face, no matter how much pain she was in, and continued her normal daily activities. She would take the kids out to play, sometimes work her part-time job and continued her roles as the Troop leader for her daughters Brownie Troop and the Committee leader for Relay for Life. She has often been referred to as a "Super Mom" by many of the other parents in the community.

Both Steve and Shawna agreed that they would forego a large wedding, and in turn, use the money to buy a house. They were very proud of themselves when they bought their 135 year-old farmhouse at the ages of 19 and 20. They knew it needed work, but they figured they were young and more than capable of doing it themselves. Over the years they were making improvements when money allowed. Now however due to extremely large medical bills, all home improvements have come to a halt. Shawna now walks around her house looking at all of the projects that still have to be done and feels guilty knowing that her family home suffers more and more each day due to the lack of funds her cancer has created. Her family means everything in the world to her, and she would love nothing more than for her hard-working husband to be able to just come home and relax with his family rather than worrying about ways to keep their drafty home warm next winter.

In this episode of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" the Extreme Team will travel to Indiana to give this "Super Mom" and her family a new, safer home to live in while at the same time helping to increase awareness of just how important it is to raise funds to help win the battle against cancer.

The whole family is very involved with Relay for Life and both Steve and Shawna are on the committee. In the past five years, Shawna raised $449,083.00 for Relay for Life, including the $71,311.00 she raised last year while undergoing treatments for her own Breast Cancer.