(WTNH) — Connecticut freelance writer Lisa Reisman is beyond inspiring. At age 32, she was told she had stage 4 Glioblastoma Multiforme brain cancer. The athlete in her family, she set out to beat it and did, one hurdle at a time.

Reisman was diagnosed, thrown in to a battle to live, the week before she was set to leave the stress of her New York City law firm to pursue a trip across the country to find something that would be less stressful. Seventeen years later, she is cancer free.

“The way I survived was putting on blinders and just doing what I had to do to make myself well; not concerning myself with support groups, self-help books, or even people who had cancer, just figuring out what I had to do to survive,” Reisman said. “But that’s not sustainable, it’s not surviving, it’s living. What really saved me was sort of widening my lens and taking down the walls and discovering this great job that I have now, which is writing for my local paper and writing about little businesses and people, regular people who wouldn’t ordinarily be written about, but should be. It’s tremendously rewarding because it’s a privilege when someone tells you their story and it’s a challenge; you’ve got to get it right, to dignify them, to tell their story so that people will understand their struggle, and it’s so much more rewarding than a 14-hour day at the firm.

Her book, 5 Months 10 Years 2 Hours, teaches a lot about strength.

For more about Reisman and her book, click here.