Life can change in the blink of an eye.

So learned 30-year-old Danita Lambe in September.

One day she was juggling the demands of being a university student and caring for her three-year-old daughter, Harlow.

The next day she learned she had breast cancer, a disease that claimed the life of her mother, Dawn, at age 40.

Ms Lambe said it felt like history was repeating itself.

“My mom found out she had cancer at age 33 and passed away when I was seven.

“Now it’s like my daughter is pretty much taking the same path as me when I had to watch my mom go through that.

“It makes me want to fight even harder for her.

“It also makes me terrified, but considering how fast the doctors over here have been moving with me is amazing.”

Back in January Ms Lambe noticed there was a pea-sized lump in her breast. She asked her doctor in Bermuda to examine it, but was told “it was nothing” and “it was okay”.

Then later in the summer as she started to pack up to go back to Oakwood University, she realised the lump in her chest had only grown bigger.

“At that point I was a bit confused,” said Ms Lambe, who is studying to be a physician’s assistant at the Huntsville, Alabama school.

“I asked my cousin to feel it and let me know if I was just bugging out. She agreed that it was big, but because the doctor said it was nothing I thought I would just let it go.

“When I got back to Alabama my daughter started rubbing that part of my chest and I realised something wasn’t right. So the first week of school I made an appointment at the health services on my campus, and the following Wednesday the doctor was able to see me. She said there was definitely something there and saw two lumps in my chest.”

Ms Lambe was referred directly to the breast centre at Huntsville Hospital. She underwent extensive testing, including two mammograms and three ultrasounds.

Twenty four hours later, on September 3, the tests came back to show it was indeed cancer.

The news hit her hard, she said.

“I figured the tests were positive because they would not have scheduled another appointment with me the next day if the lumps were benign.

“But me hearing them tell me it was cancer was still tough, kind of like an out-of-body experience.

“Harlow was in the hospital room with me in a chair watching the iPad and the only thing that brought me back to reality was when she looked at me and said ‘I love you’. After that I burst out crying.”

She continued crying in her car, for 20 minutes. She then called some of her closest friends to get advice on what she should do.

“That’s the longest I’ve cried since I found out,” Ms Lambe said.

Now she is just focused on being strong for her daughter and getting well.

A week after her diagnosis she was scheduled to have part of her right breast taken out. She asked to have the entire breast removed.

“If you eliminate the source then you can get to a solution and things tend to get better,” she said.

“The surgeon was concerned about taking the entire breast, considering I’m young and might not be able to have reconstruction surgery depending on how it heals.

“But for me a breast is a breast. It’s not important to me as long as I am here for my daughter.”

Ms Lambe is currently undergoing intense cancer treatment.

She gets a round of medicines pumped into her system each Thursday morning and by 3pm she is confined to her bed, too sick to move.

That makes attending school and completing her course work extremely tough.

But her teachers know about her illness and will often e-mail her class assignments if she’s out.

Her daughter has also been a big help throughout this process.

“When I don’t feel good Harlow is always coming to me and offering her help,” Ms Lambe said.

“One day I was laying in the tub and not feeling too sharp and she said ‘Whenever you need me, just call me and I will bathe you’. That’s how it is with her. When I sneeze she comes running with a tissue. “Whenever I say I don’t feel good she comes to me with whatever she feels will make me better, which is usually the cat.”

Ms Lambe has started losing her hair, but said the hardest part isn’t the physical changes, it’s not knowing what will happen next.

“The thing that scares me is the unknown,” she said. “I don’t know if I’m going to beat it so it’s just that and having to do things like write a will. It’s a lot to take in.”

But no matter what, Ms Lambe remains optimistic and hopes her story will touch others’ lives.

That’s why she started writing about her experience in a blog.

“I couldn’t write after my surgery. I couldn’t grip a pen or a fork, so I picked up the computer and started to write about what I was going through,” she explained.

“Then my friends who would read it encouraged me to share the link to my page on Facebook. Since then a lot more people have read it.

“I didn’t know that what I am going through could help others in different situations. But what I’ve realised is there is always someone in a worse predicament so don’t let your situation get you down and stop you from what you want to do.

“I tell myself all the time to put my big girl hat on.”

Her dream is to be around to see her daughter grow up. Now in her third year at Oakwood, she also wants to graduate with her degree so she can help others as a physician’s assistant.

Follow Ms Lambe’s journey here: http://pinkribbonsandboobies.wordpress.com.