Cancer survivor shares story with Obama

"I am honored and privileged to introduce to you today someone who is working hard to change health care in America, President Barack Obama," Hobart resident Laura Klitzka told the crowd at Southwest High School.

It was not an easy path to the podium for Klitzka. Before she got to the stage to give a three minute speech, she spent countless hours at Aurora BayCare Medical Center in Green Bay, undergoing treatment for breast cancer.

"It turned everything upside down," Klitzka said of her cancer diagnosis. It came in January of 2008. Klitzka was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer at the age of 34.

"I have to do what I can to fight for my family and my friends. I'm too young to have this take me down, not yet," Klitzka said in an interview with FOX 11.

Klitzka and her husband Peter have two young children. Peter says it's been hard to watch his wife battle cancer.

"Just to see her go through that and I can't do anything about it, puts the handcuffs on me," Peter Klitzka said.

Laura Klitzka has had several surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation. She received her final treatment in December. But then just four months later, she received even more bad news. The cancer was back. This time, it was in her bones.

"Once the disease comes back it is not curable," Klitzka's doctor, medical oncologist Dhimant Patel, said in an interview. Patel said the diagnosis is not a death sentence.

"They sometimes go on for 10, 15, 20 years. There is life," Patel said. "They can live fully. They can have a very productive life, quality time. But they need ongoing treatment."

That treatment costs money. Despite having insurance, the family has already racked up more than $10,000 in unpaid medical bills.

"We're just falling farther and farther behind," Klitzka said. That's why she said she supports President Obama's effort to reform the health care system. Patel said something needs to be done to fix the system.

"We have enough resources to take care of everybody but we're wasting a lot of money," Patel said.

Klitzka said she knows that any real changes in health care will take time, time she may not have.

"You have to enjoy your time that you have here and live life to the fullest," Klitzka said.

There is benefit for Laura Klitzka and her family coming up next month. The event will held on Saturday, July 18th at Four Seasons Park in Hobart and will include music, games and a silent auction among other things. Donations can be made at the event or at any Wells Fargo bank.