DeeDee James is turning 40 this Monday, and she’s looking forward to it.

“Thirty-nine wasn’t that great,” she said, her words carrying the weight of surviving a fight against breast cancer. “I think going through everything I have makes me look forward to life in general.”

Her life as a cancer survivor began when she was diagnosed last May. James underwent a hysterectomy and double mastectomy over the summer, and her cancer treatments took her hair, too.

James, a secretary at Buckeye Valley High School, finished her treatment in November. She will go back to the doctor every three months for her “maintenance plan” to make sure she stays cancer free.

While she’s looking forward to life beyond cancer, her life as a cancer survivor hasn’t ended. James will appear on the March page of the 2011 Fighting Faces Today for a Future Tomorrow calendar. Marysville resident Lori Wycoff produces and sells the calendar that costs $15, with 100 percent of proceeds going toward men and women with cancer and their families.

Wycoff e-mailed James late last year asking her to appear in the calendar after reading a Aug. 28 2009 Gazette article detailing how hundreds of BV students and faculty wore pink to the first day of school in support of James. A co-worker at the Dublin medical center where Wycoff works posted the article to a bulletin board.

James said modeling at a November photo shoot for the calendar didn’t feel like work.

“The whole experience was a complete and total blessing and a gift,” she said. “You go in there, and I’m completely bald with no eyelashes and no eyebrows. I don’t feel real pretty at this point in my life.”

But when she saw the photo prints after the shoot?

“It’s like an out of body experience,” she said. “I saw a beautiful person on that computer screen, and I didn’t perceive myself as that.”

“My reaction was ‘That’s me?’ It brought me to tears,” she said.

Wycoff said besides raising money and awareness to the cause, the calendar is meant to help empower the women who have appeared in it.

“I want them to feel like they’re making a difference in the lives of others… I want to build a network of people where they can go out and tell other people there is a tomorrow,” she said.

James said she now views her bout with cancer as a blessing, and an opportunity to impact others in a positive way.

“It has changed me as a person, I think,” she said.

Besides the calendar, James has donated her time speaking to BV health classes to share her experiences and encourage girls to perform regular breast cancer self-examinations. She has also written a short “inspirational story” about her experiences, which she hopes will make its way to other women in a similar situation.

James is exercising to get into shape for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in May — which will be the one-year anniversary of her diagnosis. She appreciates the support she’s received from friends, family and BV students, faculty and staff.

She wants to pay it forward.

“I look at life a lot differently,” she said. “I try not to sweat the small stuff. It’s made me stronger in my faith and my walk with Christ…My hope is that I can help someone else down the road.”

atobias@delgazette.com