Looking back on her days battling cancer, Debbie Retterath can share many numbers: 428, five and 39 come to mind, but 15 and 40 are the ones she’s perhaps most focused on as she serves as the 2017 Paint the Town Pink ambassador.

That’s because she had at last 40 people help her in some way during her 428 days of treatment, while 15 people outside her immediate family helped get her to her 30 treatment sessions.

“It was kind of a community effort to get me through those 428 days,” she said.

Debbie, an Adams resident, has promoted a simple message in her early days as ambassador, telling cancer patients and survivors: You are not alone.

“I learned very quickly that I did not fight alone,” she said as she teared up. “I was surrounded by an amazing group of family and friends.”

Help from the start

First and foremost for Debbie, her support group included her husband, Scott; sons, Kurtis and Kody; and Kody’s wife, Brooke.

Debbie first knew something wasn’t right when she found a lump a few weeks before Kody and Brooke’s wedding, but she waited, not wanting to interrupt their big day. She went in for testing after and was diagnosed with breast cancer on Halloween 2014.

She didn’t tell everyone at first.

But Debbie recalled telling her Little Cedar Church community and quickly being inundated with help and support.

“From that moment, wow, wow,” Debbie said. “People were just amazingly generous.”

She recalled one person bringing her a banana cake after she’d commented on craving banana-flavored foods.

“Just so many little things like that,” she said.

Scott coached Southland High School’s boy’s basketball team, and the boys signed a ball and donated it to be auctioned off before a game early in Debbie’s treatment. But then the boys surprised her by calling her down to the court.

“I thought, What heck, I’m not singing ‘The National Anthem,’ people,” Debbie joked.

But the boys brought her a signed game ball to match the one they’d auctioned off.

“I’m still totally touched by it,” she said.

Debbie recalls she had people asking her throughout her treatments how she was doing and what she needed.

“We just really never had to struggle on our own,” Debbie said. “There was always somebody.”

She once came home to a giant pink ribbon reading “Fight like a girl,” and it took six months to figure out who’d put it there.

At one point, she had a 6-inch stack of cards and letters, along with a string Facebook messages and emails.

And every time after treatments, Debbie and Scott would find plenty of food in the fridge. She even thanked people for working with portion size to not overwhelm them with too much food.

“Just so many little things that were just overwhelming for the whole time period,” she said.

Debbie and Scott camp at Brookside Campground and got a letter from one of the camping families from down the road.

“It’s just one big caring group of people that have helped along the way,” she said.

Debbie recalled people bringing her to “cocktail hours,” which was her term for her chemotherapy treatments.

However, she doesn’t remember the treatments themselves well. That’s because she slept through most she was often given medication ahead of the chemo.

She urged people to be their own spokespeople, as she recalled being scheduled for 1 p.m., even though her treatments typically lasted six to eight to hours with treatment and then time to get an extra vitamins and minerals over the course of her therapy. She had to remind people at the hospital to schedule her early.

She also urged people going through cancer treatments to learn the layout of Mayo Clinic in Rochester and the parking lots to find the shortest routes around the areas.

Debbie underwent two surgeries and was declared cancer-free on June 11, 2015, which was her and Scott’s 28th wedding anniversary. She continued treatments through Feb. 12, 2016.

Tracking the process

Debbie kept track of the number of treatments and many things during her cancer; in fact, she even took about 350 selfies during her treatments to show the process of losing her hair and getting it back.

Debbie was determined not to let cancer stop the way she lived. She was able to go on a trip to Mexico soon after starting treatments, and she only missed five weeks of work with the Minnesota Department of Human Services.

“I showed it who was boss,” she said.

Debbie was involved in a few of the cancer fundraising events before but she and her group didn’t get more involved in Adams Paint the Town Pink activities until after her diagnosis.

Today, Debbie is happy to be cancer-free and sharing her story. But, as she told an Austin Business after Hours crowd at the January Paint the Town Pink kickoff, she’s perhaps most excited to soon welcome her first grandchild courtesy of Kody and Brooke.

“I have so much to be grateful for,” she said.