Cancer, Up Close And Personal

Like the whirlwind she'd always been, CBS Evening News producer Diane Ronnau blew back into everyone's lives like she'd never been gone, after a year battling one of the deadliest diagnoses imaginable: pancreatic cancer.

"I would say to myself all the time, 'Cancer better be afraid of me because I am ready for the good fight,' and it's true — I was," Ronnau tells CBS News correspondent Sandra Hughes.

Of course, she was. She has traveled the world for CBS News, shouldering heavy weapons and sparring with a world champion. A true fighter, she has battled cancer, but not for herself.

"I'm going to beat this for my children," Ronnau says.

Twins Ben and Aiden were just 4 when Diane and her husband, Scott Osterman, learned why she was having pain in her back and abdomen.

"Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, you know what that means, and everything is on the line," says Scott.

Confronting a disease like pancreatic cancer, which has a 10 percent survival rate, Ronnau went to work, like all cancer patients must.

"Find the energy and find the resolve to do as much research as you can to make sure you are getting the best care because that is actually what will put you in the survivor category," Ronnau says.

Lucky to be diagnosed early, Ronnau had surgery to remove part of her pancreas and underwent months of chemotherapy. Still, the cancer spread to her liver.

She went from feeling kicked and then back on top in a day or two. "I feel I desperately wanted to be healthy," Ronnau says.

And she is, thanks to new drugs called Gemzar and 5 FU.

"I'd like to be a walking miracle. I'd like to feel that way, but I don't," Ronnau says. "I feel like a walking producer. I'm happy to do that, that's fine, and that's good enough."