Atlanta Associate Fights Breast Cancer with Help from KW Cares Grant

In September 2004, Christa Michael was excited about having joined the Atlanta-Canton market center. After eight years in real estate with another company in Atlanta, Christa realized that her financial opportunities would be greater with Keller Williams Realty and she had plans to invest as an owner of a new market center.


Those plans changed quickly. Two months later, Christa was diagnosed with breast cancer. By January 2005, after two rounds of chemotherapy, she had become extremely ill and was hospitalized. With her parents and 18-year-old son, Jay, by her side, the doctor told her that she had only weeks to live.

“I looked at my son’s face,” Christa recalled. Jay was mid-way through his senior year of high school. “I didn’t want to be responsible for him dropping out of school, and I didn’t want him to come home one day and find me dead. It was like a switch went off in my head and I just made up my mind right then that it was not going to happen like this.”

After two years of radical treatment, it was clear that it wouldn’t be enough. Her medical insurance had capped out by then. “We had nothing, but I was too embarrassed to tell anyone.” The only option left for Christa was a very rare, specialized surgery on her left arm and shoulder to remove the cancer; in fact, her entire arm was at risk of amputation. With nowhere else to turn, Christa applied for a KW Cares grant. “I just didn’t want to lose my house,” she said. “It was the only thing I had left to give my son.”

Within days of sending her grant request, Christa received an envelope containing a KW Cares check that helped cover the surgery and medical expenses.