After a 12-year absence and a bout with breast cancer, Paralympic Medalist Laura Schwanger is Beijing bound.

Laura Schwanger had thought she retired from competitive athletics after winning multiple medals in three Paralympic Games ending with Atlanta in 1996.

In March 2006, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to quit her full-time job to undergo radiation and chemotherapy treatments that she described as severe and devastating. “It left me with no strength, no endurance, no nothing,” she says.

Laura took up rowing indoors on an ergometer to build up her strength and ultimately transitioned to a scull and a new found passion for rowing that would earn her a berth in Beijing.

Laura is an old and cherished friend. It is heartwarming indeed to see her back in the mainstream and doing the things she loves.

Read the entire story at:
http://www.unitedspinal.org/2008/08/25/after-12-year-absence-paralympic-medalist-is-beijing-bound/