It’s not often that a person wakes up in the morning and remembers everything they dreamed about during the night. It’s even rarer when somebody’s dream reveal what will soon become their reality. For Kimberly Williams, mother of University of Utah quarterback Troy Williams, she vividly recalls the bizarre dream she had that changed her and her family members’ lives forever.

While sleeping, she dreamed she had a lump in her breast. When she got up the next morning, she went to work and continued about her business like she normally would. But when Kimberly got home, the dream popped back into her head. Just to be safe, she thought she would check herself. That feeling was something she couldn’t ignore, and when she did check, her dream quickly turned into a nightmare.

The Diagnosis

It was 2015 when Kimberly discovered the lump on her breast. Not knowing exactly what it was, she immediately called her doctor to schedule a mammogram. The x-ray confirmed there was a lump, but whether it was cancerous or not remained unknown. Despite Kimberly’s hopes and prayers that she didn’t have cancer, her test results came back opposite of what she desired.

Kimberly was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer, meaning that her breast cancer cells tested negative for estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2. With those three things absent in the tumor cells, cancer doesn’t respond to hormonal therapy or other drugs that are used to go after estrogen, progesterone and HER2 to help fight cancer. This makes it difficult to treat the aggressive and often reoccurring TNBC.

With two kids, Troy, who was beginning his first year at Santa Monica, and Madison, who was 9 years old at the time, this news was not what Kimberly wanted to hear. Everything she could think of suddenly began to rush through her head, like a dam had burst sending a surge of water too fast to stop.

“My main concern was that I’m here to raise my kids,” Kimberly said. “I wasn’t so much worried about Troy because he was old enough that I felt he would be okay, but Madison was my big concern. I wanted to be here for her. … My fear was that I wouldn’t be here to take care of her.”

According to NationalBreastCancer.org, TNBC is responsible for about 10-20 percent of diagnosed breast cancers. Still, Kimberly pressed forward with a positive attitude and unwavering faith.

“With today’s technology and treatment, my doctors reassured me that we caught it early and that with the chemo and radiation, that the survival rate was really high,” Kimberly said. “So that assured me that I would be okay.”

Coming to Terms

Once Kimberly got her test results back that the lump was cancerous, she decided to tell Troy first. It’s a moment that is carved into Troy’s memory.

“I was at home. I was in my room,” Troy said. “And she said, ‘Come here, I want to talk to you for a minute.’”

Kimberly went on to tell her son that she had been diagnosed with cancer. At first, Troy said he was upset, and Kimberly could see his worried look, but she reassured him that she would make it through. Her strength eased Troy’s mind.

After talking things over with Troy, Kimberly proceeded to explain the situation to Madison, who “handled it well.” But Kimberly wanted to make sure her little girl didn’t feel scared or uneasy about the uphill battle she was set to embark on. Being the older brother, Troy also made sure to help his sister throughout the hardship — even if he was away at college.

He would tell her things like, “Make sure to check in on mom to see how she is doing,” “Don’t stress her out,” “Don’t talk back to her” and “Keep a clean bedroom.” Although there was a long stretch of road between the two siblings, Troy wanted the two of them to do what they could to help alleviate pressure off their mom’s heavy load.

“I told her, ‘Mom’s going to be okay,’” Troy said. “‘You just got to pray and watch over her for me. Just keep an eye on her.’”

No Excuses

After going through a lumpectomy, chemotherapy and radiation were next on the list. Kimberly began these treatments right before Troy left to begin his football career in Utah.

The excruciating toll that chemo and radiation had on her body is something she remembers all too well. She went through five rounds of chemo, once every three weeks, before she completed six weeks worth of daily radiation.

“Radiation, in my opinion, was more extreme than the chemo because the radiation didn’t hurt, but after so many weeks, it started to literally burn your skin,” Kimberly said. “It felt like a torch, literally, because your skin would burn and start to peel. … It was a big ordeal to get through.”

Even though she had times where she was exhausted from the treatments, she always remembered that she is a mom, a supporter of her children, and that’s exactly why she wouldn’t let anything — even cancer — slow her down or stop her from fulfilling the duties of being a mother.

“It’s funny because I’ve never really seen her down or anything like that,” Troy said. “Of course she had her days where she wasn’t feeling good, but she made sure she never missed a game. She was always there for me, no matter what, and that made me want to work even harder just to make her proud and be there for her because I knew she was going through a lot, and she was able to keep a smile on her face the whole time.”

As long as Kimberly was able to get herself out of bed and walk, she told herself and her kids that she would be there for them. Part of the reason why she wanted to continue doing things as before, even though she was battling her own fight, was for the sake of normality. She felt that maintaining normality would help Madison.

Kimberly tried to soothe Madison’s fear of the possibility of her passing away by making sure she was on her feet when Madison got home from school. She hoped that seeing her mom up and about would comfort her daughter and bring her feelings of peace.

Faith, God and Timing

Choosing to have faith, believing in God and seeing the bright side of things in a gloomy situation helped both Kimberly and Troy.

“I’m a believer in faith and God, and so one of my things is I never question anything that happens, especially anything that’s negative in life,” Kimberly said. “I tell Troy that as well, because I believe things happen the way they’re supposed to. When cancer happened to me, I felt it was something I had to deal with and get through.”

Although Kimberly’s trial couldn’t be fought by anybody else, the way she approached cancer gave Troy confidence he could continue to turn to his mom for advice when he had his ups and downs.

When Troy found his way back to California after walking away from a scholarship at Washington — the place he had gone to chase his dream — he played a year at Santa Monica before coming to Utah. He was the starting quarterback last season, leading the Utes to nine wins after starting all 13 games. But in 2017, his senior year, he was beat out for the starting position at the beginning of the season.

Not being named the starter at the beginning of the season stung Troy to the core, but he found ways to keep his spirits up. He did things that he learned from his mom, things he took to heart when he saw her fighting cancer. He prayed every night, stayed close to God and found himself talking to the one he needed advice from the most — his mom.

“Once again, I had to give him that talk I did when he left Washington,” Kimberly said. “You have to have that faith, again. You have to keep your head up, you have to be strong, you have to be positive. You have to keep going, no matter what.”

There’s a saying that Troy was told as a little boy by his mom. It’s nine words that Troy reflected on when things weren’t working out on the football field, and it is the saying that helped Kimberly persevere through her health struggles: “God gives the toughest battles to his strongest soldiers.”

Beating Cancer

After a hard-fought feud between Kimberly and cancer, she kicked the disease to the curb in 2016. She said she is 100 percent cancer free today. While cancer wasn’t a roadblock she wanted to encounter, she is thankful she found a way around it and can help others who have run into this same barrier.

“I’ve shared my story with many people who are dealing with cancer and who have survived it,” Kimberly said.

In being a positive force for others suffering along the way, helping her son and daughter or enduring her own test, she did it all, the whole time believing there are no coincidences in life; everything happens for a reason.

“I’ve never questioned ‘Why me?’” Kimberly said. “Not one time.”

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@Britt_Colindres