MADISON, Wis. -- Nurse Peggy Wiederholt knows all too well the pain of losing a loved one to cancer -- losing her father, her mother, her sister-in-law and her husband.

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"I had just lost my father who was very meaningful to me, and I was very close to my father. I had just lost him to colon cancer. And now my husband at the age of 45 was diagnosed with colon cancer," said Wiederholt.

But rather than running away from the disease, Wiederholt said it was her husband's experience that brought her closer to cancer in a way she never imagined.

"I had just lost my father who was very meaningful to me, and I was very close to my father. I had just lost him to colon cancer. And now my husband at the age of 45 was diagnosed with colon cancer," said Wiederholt, who is an oncology nurse at University of Wisconsin Health.

When Wiederholt's husband Joe fought cancer, he did it with education in mind.

"Joe's focusing on how to help other people deal with their cancer helped me," said Wiederholt.

Joe was a pharmacy professor at the UW who studied how patients can better communicate with doctors.

"He took his experiences into the classroom, and he taught his students in the classroom about his experiences with colon cancer," said Wiederholt.

Joe Wiederholt lost his battle in 2000, at the age of 51, but not before inspiring a book for cancer patients called the "The Write Track."

"He was a hero to me in so many ways," said Wiederholt.

Peggy left cardiovascular nursing for something closer to her heart.

"It just came that I was destined to take these experiences and to convert those to move into a new track, and that would be oncology nursing," said Peggy Wiederholt.

It's where Peggy thrives, leading cancer support groups at UW Hospital, instilling the confidence and values she gained from her own life.

"When I've had my worst day, somebody comes along and makes it the best day," said Wiederholt.

And like her husband, Peggy is teaching those how to stand up to life's toughest conflicts.

"Cancer doesn't define who we are. It is a challenge, it's a challenge for all of us, and we have a lot of work to do," she said.

The book her husband wrote is a personal health tracker for cancer patients and inside there are pages to record cancer-related symptoms and side effects.

The books are given free to cancer patients at UW Health and are funded by private donations, WISC-TV reported.

During Joe Wiederholt's own treatment, he realized certain side effects to chemotherapy were often overlooked or underreported, and so he kept extensive notes on his own side effects and those notes have served as the basis for the book.

For More Info:

To donate to cancer research, click here: University of Wisconsin Cancer Research.
To learn more about the book, click here: The Write Track.