Jo Ellis, the mother of two daughters, Mackenzie, left, and Paige, right, was diagnosed with breast cancer after her first regular mammogram at age 41. She completed chemotherapy, had a double mastectomy and then had reconstructive surgery.

Jo Ellis doesn’t take life sitting down. Or even standing up. In fact, if she’s not running, hiking, swimming or dancing her way through life, she’s probably not happy.

So when the mother of two was diagnosed with breast cancer in August 2012, she decided she wouldn’t allow it to slow her roll.

“All I kept doing was just moving forward,” she recalls. “I said, ‘This is not going to shut me down.'”

A lifelong athlete, Ellis played volleyball and basketball at Allen County Community College before graduating from Emporia State University with a degree in recreation. She rose through the ranks at the Leawood Parks and Recreation Department. And for the past 14 years, she has been recreation program director at the Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department.

Jo Ellis doesn’t take life sitting down. Or even standing up. In fact, if she’s not running, hiking, swimming or dancing her way through life, she’s probably not happy.

“I like the atmosphere here,” Ellis said. “I get to work with a variety of people, and it’s something new every day.”

Although Ellis loves her job, it’s evident there’s an even bigger passion project in her life: her two daughters, Mackenzie, 17, and Paige, 14. So it seems fitting the pair play a central role in the story of Ellis’ battle with breast cancer.

“I was sitting on the couch one day, and I felt a lump in my breast. And I said, ‘Oh, what is that?’ This little one (Paige) goes, ‘You have breast cancer.’ And I said, ‘Oh, no I don’t,'” Ellis says. “There’s no history of it in my family, and I’d never had a mammogram.”

But after scheduling her first regular mammogram at the age of 41, Ellis was in for a shock. The doctors ordered additional tests — first a sonogram and then a biopsy.

“We were on vacation in Cancun when my doctor called, and I said, ‘Nope, I don’t need to answer it,'” Ellis says. “I was really in denial.”

Once she met with her doctors at Lawrence Memorial Hospital, Ellis resolved to battle the cancer the only way she knew how: full steam ahead. Her oncologist, Dr. Luke Huerter, advocated the most aggressive treatment possible — 16 rounds of chemo in 20 weeks — to remove the tumor from her system for good.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Ellis found a way to keep up her hectic pace of life, even in the midst of treatments. She never missed her daughters’ volleyball games — not a single one.

“I never got really sick. So I worked four days a week and went to my treatment the other day. I still coached the girls’ teams, went to their games; I continued to live my life as normally as I could,” Ellis says. “I was very tired, but I did as much as I could. It was just my mindset.”

Meanwhile, Ellis wasn’t afraid to enjoy the limited perks that came with her status as a cancer patient. Beyond not needing to worry about doing her hair or shaving her legs, Ellis found the silver lining in chemotherapy visits: reuben sandwiches from the LMH cafeteria.

“The patients get free meals, so I’d come in for chemotherapy, they’d get me all set up and ask what I want for lunch. And I’d say, ‘What do you think I want?'” Ellis says.

But LMH had more to offer than the free food. Huerter, surgeon Dr. Mark Praeger and plastic surgeon Dr. John Keller — and the medical staff, especially nurse Shari Mott — provided Ellis with information, comfort and attentive care to help her combat every aspect of the cancer.

“They were very supportive, very friendly, always asking me what was going on or how I was feeling,” Ellis says.

After successful completion of the chemotherapy, a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery, Ellis has proudly worn her cancer-free badge since February 2013. But the individual attention she receives from LMH hasn’t stopped — and won’t stop anytime soon.

“They still involve the survivors, even though we’re not always there anymore,” Ellis says. “They involve us in everything.” 

Ellis and her daughters could also rely on an extensive support network in their hometown of Baldwin City. The entire community rushed to their aid, from organizing meals to volunteering for house cleanings and donating proceeds from the annual Baldwin Breast Cancer Walk.

“In Baldwin, everybody wants the best for you, and they want to see you succeed,” Mackenzie says.

Ellis is just grateful to have a new lease on life, with her daughters by her side.

“Lots of good changes came from it,” Ellis explains. “It made me have a broader outlook, you know. … Do the little things in life that make you upset really matter?”