It was December 1986 — just two months after Wendy Kapadia of Cary met her future husband — when doctors gave her devastating news.

“I was diagnosed with sarcoma,” she said, referring to a rare form of cancer most often found in soft tissue like muscles or tendons. “They gave me three months to live.”

But 23 years and three cancers later, Kapadia is still very much alive. And she’s taken an active role in the mission to find a cure for the disease that nearly claimed her life.

“We just live every day now to the fullest and do what we can to give back,” she said of herself and her family, including husband Raj.

On Saturday, May 16, Kapadia will be on hand at Stone Creek Village for Pink at the Village, a craft show and fun day to benefit the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in Charlotte and those participating in that event. A portion of the proceeds from Pink at the Village will go to the Avon Foundation for Women, a public charity with a mission to provide access to treatment for breast cancer patients who are underinsured.

“That’s why I picked [the Avon Foundation],” said Kapadia, who first participated in the Avon Walk in 2007 — months before receiving the second of two breast cancer diagnoses. “We had great insurance. After all that happened to me, I couldn’t imagine going through all that without it.”

Among those who will join her for the walk are Julie Niederkorn and Lauren King, two of Kapadia’s neighbors in Highcroft who have also become close friends during her battle with cancer. They and others will be walking not only in celebration of a milestone — in June, Kapadia will mark the two-year anniversary of being cancer free — but also in memory of her mother, who died in 2007 of brain cancer, and in honor of Kapadia’s sister-in-law, another neighbor and Niederkorn’s mother, all of whom are currently battling breast cancer.

The Kapadias, Niederkorn and King recalled recently the circumstances that brought theirs and other families in the neighborhood closer together.

Eighteen years passed from the time Wendy was diagnosed with sarcoma, which cost her her right elbow. She concocted what she and her husband now laugh off as a silly escape plan. “I had this great idea back then to run off to Mexico and die there,” Kapadia said. “I was not going to let my family watch me die. I even tried to get rid of my [then soon-to-be] husband.

“So one day, I pulled out the IV and took off,” she continued. “He found me in the chapel. He knew exactly where I’d be. He convinced me I needed to fight.”

And fight she did. Wendy underwent chemotherapy and in May 1987 — three months after she married Raj — she had the tumor removed. Afterward, Kapadia was forced to return to school as a graduate student rather than accept a job teaching in Wake County. She needed insurance coverage for her ongoing recovery, and the school system’s insurance did not cover pre-existing conditions.

Flash forward to 2005, when the Kapadias moved from Colorado to North Carolina to allow Raj to pursue a new job. As they prepared for the September move, Wendy’s instincts told her something was amiss.

That November, Wendy had her first mammogram, which lasted a grueling eight hours. “We just knew based on the time alone that this wasn’t going to be good,” Raj said.

Wendy fought again, receiving a lumpectomy and radiation treatment. She was ineligible this time for chemotherapy because of an earlier stroke she had when she was 33. These weren’t easy days.

“When they say it takes a whole village to raise a child, well it took the whole neighborhood to keep me going when I had cancer,” she said.

It was also during this time, as Wendy prepared for her first Avon walk, that she found out she had a recurrence of breast cancer. “That was probably the darkest moment for us,” Raj said.

“It was awful,” said King, the neighbor. “I didn’t know people could deal with all these things and still be themselves. ”

Fortunately for the Kapadias, neighbors rallied to relieve some of the day-to-day stresses. Friends like Niederkorn and King were among those who took on such tasks of cooking and cleaning. “They said we’ll do dinners and lunches and even take the kids places,” Raj said.

“We all became like a big family,” Wendy added.

“People in the neighborhood just wanted to know how we could help,” Niederkorn said. “I think it did bring us closer together a lot faster than it might have otherwise.”

Nowadays, Wendy, who spent a number of years teaching in Wake, has left her job to focus her efforts entirely on supporting others battling cancer.

When she’s not lending her support to a cause or a friend, Kapadia also spends time working on a book she began writing about a year ago. It’s been one of her long-term goals to complete it.

“I’m not a writer, so who knows if it will ever come about,” she said. “But after all that’s happened, it’s kind of a catharsis thing for me. It’s cleansing.”