Surf's Up For Breast Cancer Patient

She Hits Waves, Even In Winter, And Works 12-Hour Shifts As ER Nurse

(CBS)  On the coldest weekend of the year, with the water in the 36-degree range, there's a contest made only for the brave or, as some might say, crazy.

In the waves off Narragansett, R.I. last month, the Eastern Surfing Association held its mid-winter competition.

The insanity ran in all ages, from a ten-year-old girl to a 69-year-old woman.

Among those taking part, Lee "Gidget" Ferrera, of nearby Wakefield, R.I.

She told The Early Show co-anchor Rene Syler, "The breed that surfs, truly hardcore wintertime, and surfs whenever and goes out in things that maybe aren't the best conditions — surfing keeps us alive. This, to me, is the elixer of life out there."

That, Syler points out, is especially true for Ferrera.

Aside from being an excellent surfer, she's a second-degree black-belt, wife, mother of two teenage girls, an emergency room nurse and, is in the midst of a battle against breast cancer.

Ferrera's grandmother died of the disease, her mother survived it, and Ferrera is about halfway through chemotherapy, taking each wave as it comes.

"I had the option of doing treatments over 24 weeks," she says, "or I could do 8 treatments over 16 weeks and I was like, 'Bring it on. Let's get this show on the road and get it over with.' "

Despite Ferrera's illness, she keeps up a pace that would make most women collapse, working twelve-hour shifts in the ER, and as mom to Erica and Elana.

"It's almost like I can't afford not to, to do it," she explains. "It's not so much the money. …It's what's up here (she pointed to her head).