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Jeanette Joseph

Diagnosis: Papillary Thyroid Cancer

Jeanette Joseph grew up in Milwaukee within a very close family with her parents, Paul and Judy, an identical twin sister, Carolyn, her younger sister, Brenda, and younger brother, Gregory. Her father is Paul Joseph, who spent his career as our local expert meteorologist on TMJ-4 for 36 years.

She went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison and earned a bachelor's degree in social work and sociology, and then a master's degree in social work. She worked for many years as a school social worker before staying home to be with her children. She is a proud mother of two wonderful kids: Cameron (born in 2002) and Julia (born in 2005).

After enjoying eight years at home with her children, she went back to her career and works at the Milwaukee Jewish Day School as the school social worker and student services coordinator. She loves the balance between being a professional and enjoying her time with her family.

Jeanette went through a divorce in 2011, but met an amazing man, Tom, who has become a part of the family. She enjoys playing tennis, dancing in Zumba classes, cycling with her boyfriend and going on walks with friends. She loves to cook and bake, enjoys trying new restaurants and traveling to different cities.

She was diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer in July 2010. After her diagnosis she had a thyroidectomy (surgery to remove her thyroid) and a round of RAI -- radioactive iodine treatment. In 2011, she went through another round of RAI treatment after it became clear that she had residual metastasized thyroid cancer in her body, but that treatment was not effective. In April 2015, she went through a left neck dissection surgery after it was identified which lymph nodes the residual cancer was "hiding" in. She is still healing from the surgery, but is hopeful that they got all of the cancer out of her body.

Her identical twin sister, Carolyn Wesley was diagnosed with the same cancer within weeks of Jeanette's diagnosis, so they've gone through this challenging journey together.