Abbie Stewart's encounter with breast cancer is not just a story of recovery. It is also a story of love.

When she awoke one morning eight years ago with a pain under her arm, she couldn't begin to imagine what she was about to go through. Suddenly, she was on the fast track to surgery to remove the cancer in her breast. During the operation, doctors also took out 28 cancerous lymph nodes.

But that was just the beginning. Despite the surgery, Abbie's doctor gave her a slim chance of surviving two years with traditional therapy. He recommended she undergo a new treatment being tested at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center: a bone-marrow transplant to fight breast cancer.

The transplant worked, but her illness would be a long and difficult road. Fortunately her husband, David, a physician, was able to leave work and take care of her full-time for several months in their Everett, Wash., home. During that time, they worked as a team to nurse Abbie back to health, and their romance grew stronger than ever.

"I felt that we were meant to go through this experience together to share love and to bring a message of hope to others," Abbie said. "It's our love story and God's love story. He guided us to the right medical care."

The experience left Abbie and David profoundly changed for the better, she said. So much so, that she is working on a book to help others through cancer treatment.

"We owe so much and we were treated so well at Fred Hutchinson. The nursing care I had was precious, I received very individualized care," she said. "I'd rate Fred Hutchinson at the very top."

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