There are two ways to handle a cancer diagnosis.

“You can live in fear and let it overcome you or choose to fight with all you’ve got and never let it win,” 43rd Steve’s Run guest speaker Amanda Goss of Hartford, who has been diagnosed with breast cancer twice, said July 29 at Southwestern Michigan College.

“Have you ever woke up to find your life forever changed, to find it’s been ripped away from your hands? When you’re 24 years old, do you ever think about getting cancer?” Goss, who “is on a mission,” asked participants gathered in Alumni Plaza on SMC’s Dowagiac campus for an award ceremony.

“I look back and think about what-ifs,” she said. “What if I would have gone in for my yearly routine check-up? What if I had been more pro-active about early detection? What if you could rewind and go back in time and tell yourself what’s about to happen? I can stand here and think about what-ifs all day long and wish there had been more warning signs before I woke up finding that lump.

“But I can’t live each day asking myself what if,” Goss said. “What-ifs don’t change my everyday reality. What-ifs don’t change that I have to live each day wondering if the cancer is going to come back. Instead of what-ifs, I try to live by what can I do now to help prevent its return. What can I do so the two little girls who call me Mommy don’t ever have to hear those four words — you have breast cancer.”

“My mission,” Goss said, “is to raise awareness cancer can happen to any of us. It doesn’t care if you’re a young mom starting life on your own. Cancer is very real for me and my family. I have no family history of this disease. I was born with a rare genetic mutation.”

The 2008 Hartford High School graduate and her husband, Tristin, have two daughters, Kendra, 7, and Makayla, 5.

She attended Van Buren Technology Center in Lawrence during high school, earning her cosmetology license and becoming a nail technician at Hair Innovations in Coloma.

Goss travels Aug. 2 to Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, which Steve’s Run benefits along with the Steven Briegel Scholarship Fund.

Goss must have maintenance chemotherapy every three weeks the rest of her life.

She was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer on Oct. 15, 2014.

After 10 rounds of chemo, a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery, “I had beat it and was told I was in remission,” she said. “Almost a year later, I woke up to find another lump. I knew something was wrong, so I went in and got it checked out. Diagnosed for the second time, I had Stage 4 that spread to my spine. After six aggressive rounds of chemo, I was in remission again. If any of you are wondering what you’re running for, it’s people like me who need a cure. Live each day like it’s your last. Like my idol, Ellen DeGeneres, says, be kind to one another.”

Goss posed for pictures with 2016 speaker Jamie Kastelic of St. Joseph and Dr. Abby Paul of Buchanan, who won among women 35-39 in 46:59 to finish 24th in the 10K.

Paul, from Cassopolis, competed in the ninth season of NBC’s “American Ninja Warrior.” Paul, one of Pokagon Health Services’ dentists, ran track with Kastelic in Edwardsburg.

Alex Comerford, 16, of Kalamazoo, who won the men’s 10K in 33:42, is the grandson of former Dowagiac city manager Karl Tomion.

Brian Patrick, 19, of Bridgman, won the men’s 5K in 16:24.

Jordan Callison, 25, of Bloomington, Ind., captured the women’s 10K in 42:57, with Pais Trevino, 17, of Otsego, at 19:56 in the 5K.

Four-hundred and five finished — 103 in the 10K, 302 in the 5K.

Race organizer Kate Thomas presented President Emeritus David and Camille Briegel’s family with a blanket made from previous Steve’s Run T-shirts. Steve died at 22 in 1990.

“One thing I love about this event is the fight against cancer, which personally touched my family. My mom is a breast-cancer survivor, my uncle survived leukemia and my aunt had a double mastectomy three weeks ago. I was 11 years old when my mom was diagnosed,” said Mistress of Ceremonies Danielle Kennedy, WSBT-TV, South Bend (17th in the 10K with 45:24).

“As you tell stories as a journalist, you learn to appreciate little things. I met Amanda several weeks ago. I hope all of you leave today feeling like me the first time I met her: Wow! She’s inspiring! The beautiful thing about this event is that we’re all fighting together, each in our own individual way,” Kennedy said.