OCTOBER 2017 10 | FRONTDOORSMEDIA .COM COVER STORY CONTINUED The Diagnosis Schnitzer has always been a healthy person, and never one to do anything in excess. That and the fact that there was no history of breast cancer in her family made the diagnosis at age 35 a shock. She had just given birth to Aviva, her and her husband’s first child. Around the same time, Linda, who is a year older than Lucia, discovered a lump in her breast. That turned out to be stage-3 cancer. “It freaked us out because she also had no family history,” Schnitzer said. Schitzer said she always tells Linda that the reason Linda got breast cancer was to save her life. “Both of us were nursing mothers and when she first discovered the lump, they said it was probably a clogged milk duct,” she said. “Later they realized it was an aggressive form of breast cancer.” After Linda’s misdiagnosis, Schnitzer was skeptical when the doctor – she and Linda shared the same doctor – told her that the lump she’d found in her own breast was also probably a clogged milk duct. Schnitzer was nursing a six-month-old at the time. Because of what had happened with Linda, the doctor decided to have her lump checked and, sure enough, Schnitzer found out she had a fast-growing tumor. Because she would undergo chemotherapy and radiation, she had to stop breastfeeding Aviva immediately. “I remember sitting in the rocking chair with my daughter, a baby, and looking at her and saying, ‘Mommy loves you so much. I’m not going to be able to give you pecho (Spanish for “breast”), just pretty much explaining to her why I wasn’t going to be able to give it to her anymore,” Schnitzer said. Aviva went for her mother’s breast only once after that. It was almost as if she knew. Today, Schnitzer and her husband Kenneth have four children: Aviva, 11; Benzi, 8; Gavi, 6; and Yasi, 4. Wisdom the Hard Way Cancer survivors have a certain kind of wisdom that the rest of us lack. It comes from living through an ordeal that forces them to question everything and put their lives in perspective. Schnitzer said that her purpose for carrying through the diagnosis and treatment was that she wanted to be there for her daughter. “But it was a hard, long process because there are a lot of emotions that go with the diagnosis,” she said. She remembered thinking, “When you’re on the outside and you know someone that is going through something like that, you always say to yourself, ‘How do you do it? I don’t know if I could ever do it. I wouldn’t know if I’d have the strength to do what you’re doing.’” But she quickly learned that every person finds that strength.

OCTOBER 2017 FRONTDOORSMEDIA .COM | 11 Renderings of Phoenix Raceway Project COVER STORY CONTINUED 2006: Lucia and sister-in-law Linda Schnitzer during treatment 2016: Lucia's children Aviva, Benzi, Gavi, and Yasi 2006: Lucia and husband, Kenneth Schnitzer after chemotherapy 2006: Lucia and daughter Aviva, at Phoenix Zoo 2006: After chemotherapy