How an Addison dance instructor's cancer battle fueled her mission of movement and hope
As the late '70s disco hit Stayin' Alive fills the Addison dance studio, instructor Maya Apodaca glides across the floor. She knows it is more than a soundtrack. On Aug. 23, 2023, it became her mission.
"I was teaching, and I get a phone call, and I'm like, 'This is my doctor, I need to take it,'" she said. "And that's what she told me, that I indeed have inflammatory breast cancer. And it's stage 3C. I broke down, and I started to cry."
Even now, the tears flow fresh.
"It happened so fast. I found the lump in July," she said. "By the middle of September, my tumor had grown to the size of a very angry apple. It was heavy. It was so painful. And it really was an aggressive form of cancer."
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