Faced with two life-threatening illnesses, a woman relies on her Savior for salvation, hope, and strength.

After graduating from Wisconsin Lutheran High School, Milwaukee, in 1999, Rachel Simons may have begun her life like many of her classmates, but the types of trials she's experienced over the last three years have certainly differed. It was only a year ago when Rachel was so physically weak that she relied on her father to carry her, and when she laid down, her heart was literally drowning.

Cancer strikes

After graduating from high school, Rachel went off to college. But she left school with the hopes of finding something more fulfilling. She moved to the East Coast and joined the U.S. Coast Guard, looking forward to making enough money to cover her past and future educational expenses. But Rachel was surprised that she found a job she truly loved, and she made plans to enter officer school and begin a career in the Coast Guard.

She continued serving full time even after becoming pregnant. But two months before she was due, Rachel experienced lingering signs of a possible health problem. An examination revealed that what had been dismissed earlier as separate illnesses were actually symptoms of stage two breast cancer. Rachel was 26 years old.

So Rachel's cancer could be treated as soon as possible, she gave birth to her son, Henry, three weeks early by C-section. All indications were that the cancer had not spread beyond her lymph nodes. The treatment, which Rachel began two weeks after giving birth, involved a double mastectomy and an aggressive method of administering chemotherapy called "dose dense." Over the course of four months, Rachel would receive the same amount of therapy that most patients receive in twice the time.

"The treatment was rough," she says. "After the first two rounds I really didn't think it was going to be that bad, but it got much worse." With a new baby and cancer treatment all at once, Rachel relied on family to help her get through.

With her body down to a frail 90 pounds and no hair left, Rachel credits her family and her faith as sources of strength: "We prayed together all the time. The prayers varied but the requests were always the same: through his grace to make me better." At the end of Rachel's chemotherapy, her doctor pronounced her cancer free.

A new heart needed