COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - Michelle Mecca was a former bank loan officer turned champion bodybuilder when cancer changed her life in 2017.

“When I did my last competition, my last show — I had breast cancer and didn’t know it,” Mecca said. “I learned not only did I have breast cancer, but an aggressive form. It went from my breast to my lymph nodes in a matter of weeks. By the time I was diagnosed, I was stage 3.”

Mecca had been keeping up with annual mammograms and living a healthy lifestyle with no risk factors.

“I was up on my mammograms. I did everything I was supposed to do. But I’m living proof that cancer does not discriminate,” she said.

Chemotherapy stripped away her strength and hair over four months, followed by radiation in a year-long treatment process.

After a year and a hal

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