Courtesy: Daily News of Newburyport

In the past 10 years since surviving cancer, Michelle Spadafora has been able to shed some old fears of branching out and taking risks on new things. A few years back, she and her husband Rob opened the Spadafora Flower Shop in Salisbury, something that in the past she might not have done.

"If it wasn't for my cancer, I probably wouldn't have taken that leap," said Spadafora, an Amesbury resident. "I realized life can stop on a dime and if you are going to do something you can't just whittle away time." In 1997, Spadafora was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Through surgery and chemotherapy, she was able to overcome the cancer and has not seen a recurrence of it in the 10 years since.

Even three years before she was diagnosed, she participated in the North Shore Medical Center's Walk for Cancer, which takes place this weekend. The only time she missed it was when she was in treatment or had another commitment. This year, though she will be at a family reunion, she will be sponsoring two teams. For her, it's a way to give back to NSMC, which she feels gave her the opportunity to pursue her dreams. And that doesn't just include the flower shop.

A few years back, she got the opportunity to pursue something else she had put on the shelf since she was a kid. She was offered a job to run the Amesbury Recreation Department's Summer Community Theatre program and since then, has been instructing sixth- to ninth-graders each summer. As a result, Spadafora created an idea to teach an after-school theater arts enrichment class for elementary school students. She pitched it to the PTA and they hired her to do it. "Again, this is something I never would have done in the past," Spadafora said. "But when I got sick I got the courage to try things I've never done."