KILLEEN, Texas — There is nothing quite like the sound of laughter in the early morning hours in the backyard of Tyra Chamant but it's not just any laugh, it's one filled with hope on the heels of learning she must fight for this life she loves, once again.
"When I got the news that my cancer came back, just for my chest alone, I, I just, death, that's all I saw, I'm dying," Chamant told 6 News.
Chamant was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer on March 5, 2018 and while she went in remission, just last month she says her cancer has returned and is now Stage 4 Metastatic Breast Cancer.
"A week after that diagnosis I started to lose my sight," Chamant said, adding she went to her oncologist who thought she had dry eye.
"I was like, something is not right and Julie, from Pink Warrior Angels, was getting on me and told me to get to the doctor and so I got my biopsy done on September 27 and they told me the cancer had metastasized to my brain, so that's why I'm losing my vision," Chamant said, sunglasses shading her fragile eyes.
Julie Moser is a two-time breast cancer survivor, she's been there and through Pink Warrior Angels of Texas (PAWTX), the two are fighting Chamant's fight together.
"I'll never pass judgment on why you want to curse one day and smile the next or scream at God. I will never pass judgment because I am a safe place because it's something we all need and that's our sisterhood, that's our unlikely sisterhood that we are in," Moser said.
Moser completed her first battle with breast cancer back in 2015 and founded PAWTX shortly after as a way to help other families lighten the emotional and financial burden of a cancer diagnosis.
The organization does it by building a community of support, of comfort, encouragement and power. Moser, who used to work in the business world, said this was God's way of intervening in her life. No cancer warrior, she said, should ever feel alone.
"Why does God put us on Earth and why did I have to go through what I went through?" Moser said. "I feel that it is just that, it is to help somebody else so they don't have to go through all the pain that I went through or offer the help that I wish somebody would have helped me but I didn't know how to ask."
Chamant, who faces treatment beginning next week, has vowed to conquer cancer again but admits she can't do it alone and is thankful for every person who has supported her and loved her, even in times when she didn't know if she could continue, especially Moser.
"I can cry with her, she listens to me, she knows what I am going through," Chamant said. "The people in this community, we've all been there and had the surgeries, the chemo, we sometimes have different cancers but we all have the same fears, anxiety and depression. That's what this organization offers, conversation and friendship."
In the afternoon sun, coffees in hand, both of these cancer warriors talk about what the future holds, the treatments and a plan for Chamant as she faces her biggest battle of her life.
Chamant, the happy-go-lucky veteran of our country with an uncertain future said she just has one wish for anyone who will hear it and maybe grant it, even among all the sadness her diagnosis has brought.
"I don't want to be miserable, I don't want to be depressed, so I just smile. Once my sight comes clearly back, I'm just going to smile and I hope somebody is smiling back at me so I can say I saw your smile and I know you're happy," she said. "I just want to see it, I want to see all those teeth no matter if they are straight, crooked, gappy, whatever."