DOWAGIAC — As an antiques collector and dealer, the vice president of the local school board and — most important of all — a loving wife and mother, Dowagiac’s Ruth Ausra always has a lot on her plate to keep her busy.

Given her responsibilities, spending several months fighting a life-threatening disease was not something she had penciled in on her agenda.

So, when her physician diagnosed Ausra — who has always been in great health — with breast cancer, her first thought, after glancing at her husband, Terry, was if her doctor had grabbed the wrong clipboard before entering the examination room.

“I think my exact words to her were, ‘You have got to be kidding me,’” Ausra said.

Today, Ausra is completely cancer free — though the struggle to defeat the disease was not an easy one, she said.

Ausra shared her the tale of her road to recovery to a crowd assembled to celebrate the Lee Memorial Foundation’s tree lighting ceremony for its annual Tree of Love fundraiser Wednesday evening. Around 50 people gathered on the grounds of Farr Park outside Dowagiac’s Borgess-Lee Memorial Hospital, where they witnessed an evergreen pine tree come alive with twinkling specks of pink light, neatly spiraling from the base to the tip of the plant.

Each pink lightbulb lit on the tree represents an $8 donation made to this year’s Tree of Love campaign. Money generated through the charity drive will help pay for free mammograms at the Dowagiac hospital, for Cass County women who are uninsured or underinsured.

So far, the program has paid for 250 free breast cancer screenings for local women, said Tom Carlson, chair of the Lee Foundation board. For the 2017 campaign, foundation members are looking to raise $9,000 or more in donations, which will help pay for around 100 mammograms for local women.

Carlson and other members of the foundation invited Ausra to speak at Wednesday’s ceremony. The board chair said that the Dowagiac woman — who serves with Carlson on the board of the Dowagiac Union Schools Foundation — is “one of the pillars of the community,” who has dedicated her life to her friends, family and good causes in the community.

Ausra said that she was diagnosed with breast cancer after going to her doctor for a mammogram that she had put off for around two and half years, she said. Although in the past she had been getting examined for breast cancer on a regular basis, she had decided to push back her next exam due to her numerous commitments to her family and community, Ausra said.

After her first examination, her doctor asked her to return for a follow-up ultrasound. Thinking everything was still OK — she had similar second screenings in the past — she was startled during the exam when the technician performing the work suddenly went quiet during the test.

Ausra later received a phone call asking her to visit the doctor’s office to receive the results of the test — the person on the other end could not tell her over the phone, after Ausra asked her if she could to save time, she said.

After receiving the dreaded cancer diagnosis from her physician, Ausra had to undergo an extensive treatment process.

A month after going under the knife to have the tumor removed, the Dowagiac woman underwent six sessions of chemotherapy, lasting around 18 weeks. After that, she had to ensure seven weeks’ worth of radiation treatment, which took place five days a week, she said.

“If think you don’t have time for a mammogram, you REALLY don’t have time to go through cancer treatment,” Ausra said. “It wreaks havoc on your schedule.”

Though women have a tendency to place the needs of their family and friends above their own, Ausra said that her experience has taught her that it pays to spare that extra hour every year to get examined for breast cancer. With Borgess-Lee right in their backyards, and the support of the Tree of Love program, there is little standing in the way between Dowagiac women and early — and possibly lifesaving — detection, Ausra said.

“It is much, much easier to go for your mammogram when you are due than to put it off,” she said. “Don’t think that cancer — especially breast cancer — can’t happen to you. If it can happen to me, it can happen to anybody.”

Donations have been steadily pouring into the 2017 Tree of Love, though officials are still encouraging people to donate through Dec. 31, when the campaign ends. To donate, people may contact Beth Cripe, development coordinator with the Lee Memorial Foundation, at (269) 783-3026.