I had never heard of Kay Yow until last year.

The ESPYs were on and I happened to see Yow receive the first ever Jimmy V Award for Perseverance. As I watched and listened to the story of coach Yow, the hall of fame North Carolina State women’s basketball coach who was in her third battle with breast cancer, I remembered how cancer has affected my life.

My mom passed away from colon cancer in 2003 and my grandma lost her battle with lung cancer in 2001. I also had a close family friend beat breast cancer once, but couldn’t do it twice, and an aunt in who is currently in remission from breast cancer.

Yow, the player who once scored 52 points in a high school game, attended a college without a women’s basketball program and prepared for life as a teacher. But her first teaching job had one provision: she had to coach the girls’ team, despite the fact that she had never coached a game in her life.

It worked out.

Yow would go on to coach the North Carolina State Wolfpack for 34 seasons. She won 737 games, fifth most all-time among women’s coaches, led the Wolfpack to four ACC Championships and her teams appeared in 20 NCAA Tournaments, including a Final Four berth in 1998. Yow even won a gold medal in 1988 at the Los Angeles Olympics.

The court at Reynolds Coliseum is now named Kay Yow Court.

But what Yow will be remembered for most is her energy and passion for life. She had no enemies and even got two of women’s basketball’s fiercest coaching rivals, Connecticut’s Geno Auriemma and Tennessee’s Pat Summitt, to serve on her Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund board. Her players saw the dedication she had to them and gave it back. Coach Yow never stopped.

She said each battle with cancer made her a stronger person.

Unfortunately, I have seen first hand the immense pain cancer causes. I listened to my grandma struggle even to say hello when I called. I saw my mom gather enough strength to walk into the gym and watch me wrestle, the only match she ever saw.

My mom, my grandma and Yow fought.

Fought like hell.

For coach Yow, the fight ended Saturday at age 66.

Cancer research has come a long way thanks to the efforts of The American Cancer Society, The Jimmy V Foundation and the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund, just to name a few.

The disease is still taking the lives of people who give so much to others. Jim Valvano, better known as Jimmy V, was Yow’s colleague and friend at NC State. He coached the Wolfpack men to a national championship in 1983 and died of cancer 10 years later. Sport greats Brian Piccolo of the Chicago Bears and Ernie Davis, a Syracuse football player, also passed away from the deadly disease.

Creighton’s Relay for Life takes place on March 27th. It is a way for you to get involved in the fight against cancer. Our volleyball team has a “Digging for the Cure” night, another way to support cancer research.

After I learned of Coach Yow’s passing, I rewatched that ESPY presentation. Yow mustered up a ton of energy for that night. Well into her third cancer battle, she thanked God first and offered some advice to all of us.

“When life kicks you, let it kick you forward.”

That message is one we can all take to heart.