Mom With Stage IV Cancer Thrives 5 Years After Diagnosis

The day before Becky Grubb turned 40, she expected to wake up from a colonoscopy with a diagnosis of colitis. Instead, she opened her eyes to a doctor patting her arm and a nurse crying in the corner.

The Denver mom had stage IV colorectal cancer with lesions in her lungs. She had a newborn daughter, a young son, and a full-time career that suddenly felt impossibly distant.

Her best friend, an anesthesiologist, gave her urgent advice: "Get yourself to UCHealth right now." Grubb didn't think a second opinion would matter much, but she went anyway.

Within five minutes of meeting Dr. Wells Messersmith at the University of Colorado Anschutz Cancer Center, she knew she'd found her team. "I joke that Dr. Messersmith speaks Becky," she said.

What followed was an aggressive, multi-pronged approach. Grubb underwent chemotherapy, lung surgery to remove tumors, more chemotherapy, colon surgery, radiation, and immunotherapy through a clinical trial.

Her doctors performed an ovarian transposition before radiation, moving her ovaries outside the treatment field. The procedure prevented early menopause and bone loss, preserving her quality of life for the long haul.

"Even in cases where we can't cure you, we can turn this into more of a chronic disease, like diabetes or hypertension," Messersmith told his patients. For Grubb, that's exactly what happened.

Today, nearly five years after her diagnosis, Grubb works full time as a communications manager. She keeps up with her husband Erik and their two active kids, now 7 and 5, running between sports practices and school events like any other parent in their 40s.

Why This Inspires

Grubb keeps things light, even wearing a tutu to a 5K benefit for colorectal cancer research. She jokes with her mom, a breast cancer survivor, about who has the worse diagnosis. "I am currently winning," she quips.

But beneath the humor is profound gratitude. She credits her parents, sister, and in-laws for dropping everything to help when needed, and her Denver "village" for keeping her family going through the hardest moments.

"I will never be able to repay the people who have come back into my life to support me, who've taken care of my kids, who've jumped on an airplane last-minute to help me," Grubb said. "That's why I want to pay it forward."

Her story offers hope for the growing number of people diagnosed with cancer at younger ages, showing that advanced disease doesn't always mean the end of normal life.