Kate Crawford was exhausted. She was a 26-year-old mother of three children, all under the age of 3. She had constant headaches and stomachaches, and once rushed to the ER with stabbing back pain. Doctors told her, “That’s just motherhood,” recalls Crawford, now 41.

But something didn't feel right when she did a self breast exam. She was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer when she was 28. When she was diagnosed, doctors said she had less than two years to live.

In August, Crawford — who worked as a firefighter and EMT in her hometown of Rostraver, Penn. before leaving to raise her children — had her 200 th cancer treatment. She talks to PEOPLE about her cancer journey and how she has fought to live 13 years since that diagnosis, focusing on making memories with her children.

I did not have

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