52-year-old Lisa Brandt has been working as a Chesapeake firefighter for 18 years now. But, up until recently, she hasn’t been putting out any flames because she’s trying to extinguish a personal battle of her own.
Although she looks healthy on the outside, she is struggling internally.
“If I push myself way too much for the certain activities, I get completely out of breath. I’ll start feeling a chest pain," says Brandt.
Three years ago, Lisa had colon cancer and beat it – leaving her to need a check up every six months. This past March, she did just that – but this time she found something was wrong, yet again.
“They did blood work and my blood work was really low, but my scans showed everything normal – that I wasn’t growing a tumor. So, this became a mystery. It’s been a mystery up until June 25," says Brandt.