Inflammatory Breast Cancer

June 18, 2010 Updated Jul 25, 2007 at 5:28 PM EDT

(Whitley County, IN) -- A year ago, we introduced you to a local woman diagnosed with a rare and deadly form of breast cancer that -- frankly -- we'd never heard of.

Here is her update.

"I've read all the breast literature, I do everything I'm supposed to. And I didn't know about this."

We talked to Sherry Hesting a year ago.

She was diagnosed with Inflammatory Breast Cancer in 2005, and made it her mission to educate others -- including the medical community -- about the rare and deadly disease.

The average prognosis for survival is a year and a half.

Sherry battled IBC for two years.

She died last month.

Sherry took a photo took with her five grandkids at the two-year anniversary mark of her diagnosis.

Her mission the past couple of years has been advocacy and education for people about Inflammatory Breast Cancer.

And even at the end, her family has carried out that mission.

"At the funeral home, we had IBC pamphlets to hand out to everybody that came, to make sure they got the information," says Sherry's husband, Tom.

Inflammatory Breast Cancer does not come with a lump, can not be found with a mammogram, and spreads quickly.

It manifests itself as redness, swelling, or itching of a breast -- often misdiagnosed as a simple infection.

Sherry Hesting said women should insist their doctors perform a biopsy, if antibiotics don't work after a few days.

IBC accounts for up to 6% of breast cancer cases, and strikes women of all races and all ages, including in their teens.

Sherry Hesting was 62.

For more information about Inflammatory Breast Cancer, click on "News Links" at the top of our homepage.