Holly Koscak learned she had breast cancer, and as soon as she could, she underwent a double mastectomy.

Next came a hysterectomy.

Double rounds of chemotherapy followed.

The diagnosis, the major surgeries and the chemotherapy all happened in a span of about two months.

Despite it all, the Tamaqua woman continued to keep a positive outlook.

“There’s no time to be down,” she said.

Koscak will be honored with the Courage Award during the Cancer Telethon on Saturday, almost a year to the day of her cancer diagnosis.

She’s candid about her journey, sharing the highs and the lows.

“I post everything on Facebook,” Koscak said. “I’m hoping that that one person who is out there and doesn’t want to ask for help at least reads it. If they don’t feel comfortable reaching out to me, I hope they reach out to someone else. I don’t want them to think they’re alone.”

Koscak said that both her grandmother and mother, along with two of her cousins had breast cancer.

When her mother was diagnosed in late 2002, Koscak underwent testing, wanting to know if she, too, carried a gene that causes breast cancer.

The test was clear.

But because of the density of her breasts, doctors ordered Koscak to have mammograms and MRIs every six months.

A 2006 test spotted a lump, which was removed and turned out benign. In 2018, doctors found and removed another lump. That, too, was benign.

“I wanted a double mastectomy in 2018 but (insurance) said ‘no’ because I wasn’t 50,” Koscak said. “The saga continued, mammogram, MRI, and then in April of ’24, I learned I had invasive lobural carcinoma.”

The type of cancer, she said, is sneaky, and grows in a straight line before it clumps somewhere and is detectable. It wasn’t palpable. Even with its location known, doctors couldn’t feel it.

“Basically what happened was I was diagnosed April 17 and on April 23 they did the biopsy. On May 5, I had a colonoscopy done to make sure I had no cancer there,” Koscak recalled. “On May 15, I signed my life away on all the legal documentation. On May 28, I had a double mastectomy. And on June 22, I had a total hysterectomy.”

The hysterectomy was Koscak’s decision.

“I had functioning ovaries, if I kept them, I would have had a monthly shot to stop my hormones from functioning since estrogen was trying to kill me,” she said. “Estrogen was feeding the cancer.”

Menopause symptoms presented immediately — and brutally.

“I had severe hot flashes,” Koscak said. “And I can’t use anything that contains estrogen — or anything that turns into estrogen — for the hot flashes. But that’s the way it has to be, do that, or let cancer kill me. And I’m not going to let that happen.”

Two weeks after the hysterectomy, doctors at Penn State Cancer Institute in Hershey installed a port and chemotherapy began.

“I will be honest: chemo sucks,” she said.

She felt sick, lost her appetite and found that everything tasted terrible.

Her last round of chemotherapy was Sept. 18.

“I did all four rounds. It’s done and over with and I never want to do chemo again,” Koscak said.

She’s now on oral medications to treat the cancer.

Koscak said she has some side effects like joint pain and stiffness.

But she’s not complaining.

“It’s not anything that I can’t handle,” she said. “I make sure I drink enough fluids, take my meds as ordered and take all the vitamin supplements.”

Koscak is also part of a clinical trial through the Penn State Cancer Institute.

Doctors believe they removed all the cancer. Koscak is awaiting a PET scan and is hoping for the best.

She has been back at her home care job since Aug. 28. Had she opted for breast reconstruction, she would have had been out of work for several more months.

“(Reconstruction surgery) would have meant another 24 weeks off of work, and I only had 12 (to take),” she said. “I have a child in college and I have a child in Special Olympics. Therefore, I wanted to come back to work.”

Without the reconstruction, she proudly admits that she is a “flattie.”

“I am a flattie. And I am happy,” Koscak said. “I’m OK.”

She even joined a group with other flatties. Through a “Flat Out of Love” group, she has met with others like her.

“There are also ‘Pink Sisters’ in the Tamaqua area who immediately reached out to me as soon as they found out I had cancer,” Koscak said.

She’s trying to reach out to others, too.

“The can call me, they can reach out to me, I will gladly listen to them,” she said.

She’s even shared a video of her having her head shaved before chemotherapy — a decision she made because she didn’t want to watch her hair fall out, and photos of her lying in a hospital bed as she receives the treatment.

Looking back, Koscak said she was angry when she learned she had cancer. If she had a double mastectomy — like she wanted — she believes the cancer would have gone with it.

“I don’t have the BRCA (breast cancer) gene. I don’t think there’s been enough research done since my mom had it and my gram had it, and two of my cousins had it before me,” she added.

For the most part, Koscak feels well.

“I only had a couple bad days after chemo. My days are pretty good,” she admitted. “I don’t have the stamina that I had before. It’s hard for me to get up and down; I’m stiff. But other than that, I don’t have bad days.”

She’s looking forward to the future, spending time with her husband, Joe, and their daughters, JulieAnn, 28, and Jessica, 22.

“I’m still writing this book. It’s still new. It’s only coming up a year on my diagnosis,” she said.

Holly Koscak is one of four cancer patients who will be honored this weekend. Koscak’s presentation will be at approximately 8 p.m. Saturday at the Cancer Telethon broadcast live from Penn’s Peak. The other honorees are Jean Hunsinger of Hometown who will be recognized at 7 p.m. Saturday and Darin Dotter of East Penn Township and Peg Alberici who will be honored Sunday evening.

The telethon runs from noon to midnight both Saturday and Sunday and can be seen through Northeastern Pennsylvania on several cable systems: Service Electric (Lehigh Valley), channel 913; Service Electric Cablevisions, channel 90; Blue Ridge Communication, channel 13; Blue Ridge Communications (Adams County), channel 13; Comcast, channel 15. The telethon is also livestreamed on YouTube.