When a 35-year-old Sherry Pollex was diagnosed with Stage 3 ovarian cancer in 2014, she was given a 30 percent chance of survival over the next five years.
Instead, she lived nine more years. Nine. And during nearly a decade of cancer battles, Pollex became an inspiring figure who soaked up every drop of the extra time she fought so hard for.
Pollex died early Sunday morning at age 44, with cancer taking a beautiful soul whose presence was a gift to so many. But cancer cannot erase the lessons she gave us unless we fail to remember them, so we can’t make the mistake of letting them fade away.
As the longtime partner of NASCAR champion Martin Truex Jr. before their breakup late last year, Pollex impacted countless lives in a positive way. She never planned on being an inspirational disease fighter — who would? — but found a way to mentally wrap her arms around an unenviable situation.
“I often wonder if that’s my purpose here,” she said last July. “It’s maybe not what I would have chosen for myself — nobody really wants to be the poster child for any type of cancer — but maybe I’m supposed to go through all this so I can pave the way for other women.
“On some days, that can be a really hard pill to swallow. But on other days, it’s like, ‘You know, I’ve…
