Two years ago, 28-year-old Shelby Ruge decided she was young, able and ready for an adventure. So she packed up her life in Kansas City, Mo., and moved to Seattle where she began teaching science and coaching girls’ swim at Eastlake High School.

“I started drinking a lot of coffee. A lot of coffee,” she said. In February of 2013, she found a mass in her chest and just assumed it was due to her caffeine intake.

“I thought I’d cut down on coffee and see if it went away,” Ruge said. “And being a teacher, I didn’t want to deal with sub plans and go take care of it, so I put it off until May.”

The mass began hurting, so Ruge went in for a biopsy. It was negative for cancer.

“They told me it would probably grow a little bit bigger, but since it was benign, I didn’t have to worry about it. And then in June, I had some really, really sharp pains and I just didn’t feel right. So I went back in and they checked it again, and it looked different than before, so they did another biopsy.”

Ruge was told that it was most likely nothing and not to worry about it. But the following Thursday, on June 27, she got a phone call. The mass was in fact cancerous.

It was something that she somewhat expected, Ruge said, but that didn’t stop her from feeling overwhelmed with emotions. She was home visiting her family at the time.

“I immediately started crying,” she said. “It was really, really hard to accept.”

After 20 minutes of tears, Ruge decided she was done. She needed to be strong for her family, her friends and, ultimately, herself.

“Going to the infusion floor and seeing little kids…they have it worse than me. So there’s no reason to cry.”

Ruge has no family history of cancer and tested negative for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. So the chances of her being diagnosed with breast cancer were very, very slim, she said. The cancer spread to her lymph nodes under her arm, and they are unsure as to whether it is present in her lungs. Ruge said that children in Missouri contract a bad flu that can leave scar tissue in the lungs, and a CT scan will not show the difference. Her next scan should reveal a lot more information, but for now she continues with her weekly chemotherapy treatments and hopes for the best.

“It was just a very bad hand,” she said.

And as a healthy young adult, Ruge had signed up for the cheapest insurance plan offered through the school. Once she was diagnosed, Ruge had already established herself as a patient at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. She felt comfortable with the doctors and decided she wanted continue her treatment at the facility, but it wasn’t covered under her basic plan.

“I had made my mind up that regardless of the amount of money that I was going to have to spend, my health needed to come before that. I could figure the money out later,” she said.

She knew it was going to be a struggle, but she didn’t want the cancer to stop her from teaching and coaching.

“I was kind of concerned I wouldn’t have the energy and strength to keep going, but the kids I coach are amazing, so they keep my energy and spirits up,” Ruge said.

Erin Gronewald, Eastlake senior and captain of the girls’ swim team, said she was pretty shocked when she heard the news, and it soon became clear that Ruge was going to need all the support she could get.

The swim team took action, creating “Just Keep Swimming” T-shirts and organizing a car wash.

“Not many people knew about it, so in order to get the support she needed we had to get her recognized,” Gronewald said. “She wasn’t going to do it herself.”

The swim girls got the word out in every way they could, from talking to Eastlake’s athletic director to going door to door. What started small soon exploded into a school-wide effort.

The school organized a “pink out” volleyball game, selling the T-shirts the swim team had made. This led to a pink-out football game, a partnered pink-out swim match with Redmond High School and an entire pink-week at school. And all of these events fell in October, the month nationally dedicated to breast cancer awareness.

Chris Bede, Eastlake High School associate principal, said that Sammamish schools have been coming together to support the cause.

“My wife coaches at Skyline, so I know that they had shirts printed that said ‘Keep Swimming Ms. Ruge.’ I also know that they have banded together to raise money.  I think it’s great because it shows the camaraderie between the high schools on the Plateau.”

So far, the total amount raised for Ruge is approximately $12,000.

“I didn’t expect people to be so generous. I didn’t expect donations,” Ruge said. “I have a hard time accepting help, I’ve never been that type of person. So this has definitely been a humbling learning experience.”

Ruge started a blog titled “Karate Chopping Cancer,” documenting everything from the moment she found out she had been diagnosed to her weekly chemotherapy treatments. It started small as an easy way to keep her family updated, but Ruge said it transformed into much more.

“It’s been a way for me to reflect back on what’s going on and kind of put it all into reality,” she said. “Because sometimes I think it’s just a dream, like this can’t be happening to me.”

The blog spread like wildfire and Ruge received amazing feedback, giving her motivation to continue writing.

“The people reading, they think of me as someone who is courageous. But I’m only fighting for my life because of them. They are the people that I look up to and see living their life, so I want to live for them.”

Kate Agnew, Eastlake teacher and the head coach for the girls’ swim team, said the one thing that has stood out to her most is the amount of people at Eastlake who don’t know Ruge personally, but have supported her since day one.

“There have been a large number of Eastlake students who have been directly effected by breast cancer,” Agnew said. “I must have ordered more than 650 pink shirts. And all of them were sold. I had kids coming to me asking for more.”

Ruge said the hardest part of the whole thing has been her emotions.

“I think most of the tears I cry are happy tears. That, or feeling really guilty for just how amazing everyone’s been to me and the fact I can’t pay them back. It’s an internal struggle inside of me,” Ruge said. “I’m happy everyone is helping me, but I’m angry because I can’t do anything for them.”

Ruge’s mom continues to tell her that while she may not be able to pay anyone back, she can pay it forward.

“I now have the open mentality of being able to understand where someone is coming from and do what I need to do to help,” Ruge said. “But it’s not instant, and that’s the hardest thing for me is that all these people are amazing and I can’t do anything about it right now.”

What Ruge doesn’t understand is that being there for her students is enough. Gronewald and co-captain Lauren Taylor said they admire Ruge’s attitude and the way she’s dealt with the situation. They said that people aren’t scared to talk about the cancer because of how open Ruge has been with everything. She even dressed up as Walter White for Halloween.

“I might as well embrace it,” Ruge said.

Gronewald said they’re celebrating the fight, not the struggle. And she and Taylor made it clear the fight will not end with their swim season.

“We’ve been talking to the basketball team and our athletic director about making pink ‘sixth man’ T-shirts so we can continue to help,” Taylor said. “Everybody has wanted to show support.”

When Ruge started the entire process, her tumor was nine centimeters long. She said that while there’s no real timeline in regards to being totally cancer-free, she knows her tumor is shrinking.

“They don’t really tell you your prognosis, because it’s taken one day at a time,” she said. “Hopefully it’s gone in a year.”

Ruge was recently able to switch her insurance policy, so all of her treatment after Nov. 1 will be covered. She has five chemotherapy treatments to go, with her last one scheduled for Dec. 13. After that, she gets to go home and spend the holiday break with her family. In January, she will go through several surgeries, including a double mastectomy, before starting daily radiation.

“I’ve thought of this whole year as a job. A really crummy job, but a job,” Ruge said. “My boss is cancer and I have to pay to work it, and every Friday I have to go and clock in and clock out, but it’s just a year. And after a year, I get my life back. I can move on and know I survived a really crummy job.”

Ruge and Eastlake swimmers glance at the clock during practice at the Redmond Pool.