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Cancer survivor loses battle

02:29 PM EDT on Wednesday, May 24, 2006

A woman we profiled on WHAS11.com has lost her battle with ovarian cancer.

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Dr. Lillian Yeager was the dean of nursing at Indiana University Southeast. Her friends say they'll remember her courage under fire and her grace.

She was diagnosed fire years ago Tuesday. She was 62 years old.

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Dianne Estes helps women look good.

She hopes they feel good.

She's a hairdresser -- and survivor.

If anyone asks -- she'll talk about ovarian cancer something she was diagnosed with five years ago her symptoms feeling bloated.

One doctor told her it was gastritis -- she believed it was more serious. There was no family history though her PAP smears were normal so were both pregnancies with her daughters.

There is no test for ovarian cancer.

Only recently has a support group formed in Kentuckiana called OAK -- Ovarian Awareness of Kentucky.

Dianne is two years cancer free this poem about an oak tree hangs on her living room wall, signed by other OAK survivors -- a celebration of life.

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Meet Dr. Lillian Yeager -- still fighting the good fight. She's reading from a book of letters given to her on her 60th birthday.

“On days I feel well I act well -- on days I don't feel well, I act well.”

Dr. Yeager's office at Indiana University Southeast gives you a sense of what she is -- Dean of Nursing -- and a sense of who she is. Faith and family keep her going -- a picture of her daughter keeps her smiling.

Dr. Yeager has undergone four surgeries since her diagnosis in 2001. The wig she wears disguises the ravages of her chemotherapy. It took months for doctors to realize her stomach pain was ovarian cancer, known as the silent killer.

Cancer is part of her life but it doesn't keep her from living. She just returned from a cruise --and is planning another trip this winter.

“I take it one day at a time,” she says.

One day at a time is also Dee Edwards’s motto.

It's a new school year at Crosby Middle School but her students are well aware she's in the fight of her life --and for her life with ovarian cancer.

They helped raise money so she can travel to M.D. Anderson in Texas, where she's taking an experimental drug.

Edwards has the support of her school family -- and her own family, including, her son Sean and husband Frank. She was diagnosed not too long after Sean was born after a perfectly normal pregnancy. She was 32 when what she thought was a stomach flu turned out to be ovarian cancer.

Dee had a complete hysterectomy and travels to Texas every three months for treatment.

Dee is moving forward, cherishing each moment with her husband and her son who just turned four years old.

“We wanted to have another child,” Dee says. “We feel very blessed to have Sean. He's worth living for.”

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