Woman Battles Stage 4 Breast Cancer, Shares Story of Hope

Two years ago, 34-year-old Lora Wereb and her horse, Merlin. were an unlikely pair.

“I never thought I’d love a horse,” Wereb recalled.

But their paths crossed after this Santa Ynez Valley woman was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer.

“They found it throughout my chest, through my liver, up my neck,” Wereb said. “It was everywhere. Everywhere but my bones, which was the best news I could have gotten.”

Wereb was thrown into a whirlwind of chemotherapy, seven different surgeries, and many different medications. In addition, she received a terrible life expectancy.

“You’re given six months to two years sometimes,” she said.

It was a very scary moment for both Lora and her boyfriend, Bryan Snyder.

“I guess my reaction was, I guess, to hope for the best you know?” Snyder said. “Because it’s just a big question mark.”

However, it was hope that kept her from giving up and help from a four legged friend.

“He was this broken horse that had no muscles and so we kind of both needed to be healed,” Wereb said.

After that moment, the two raced forward in life and past both their grim diagnoses.

“I’m doing okay, because of him,” Wereb said hugging her horse. “And I have something to take care of.”

In addition, the two are training for endurance horse riding competitions, beating the odds one step at a time.

“If you would have looked at this horse a year ago, and looked at me a year ago,” Wereb said. “You would never think we’d do anything like that.”

He boyfriend, Bryan, agreed.

“One of the best things is just watching the two of them, a good emblem of their continued health, when you get to see them out there in the hills riding.”

Lora continues to fight stage four breast cancer while accompanying Merlin on his doctor’s appointments to get him back to full health.

For more information on their story and how you can help with fundraising efforts to pay for medical costs, click on this link. http://www.gofundme.com/6months2years