AMARILLO, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) — “I’ve come to really care about her as a person, not only as a teacher. I feel like we’re really privileged to be able to do this for her,” said Lee Ann Shaw, Montessori Academy Director.

Shaw is referring to her first year teacher Holley Blackwell, who Shaw says has an infectious personality that rubs off on her students.

”She’s so warm and caring with them. It’s hard for me to remember sometimes that I was doing evaluations and she’s only been here 90 days,” said Shaw.

Recently, Blackwell was feeling ill, prompting a trip to doctor’s office.

“I went in to see if I had the flu or anything like that because I was having trouble breathing, just things of that sort,” said Holley Blackwell, Montessori Academy Teacher.

Doctors then ran some tests but discovered something much more serious.

”They listened to me and they checked my lungs for liquid and instead they found the tumors across my chest,” said Blackwell.

After undergoing a biopsy, Blackwell later received her official diagnosis.

“It’s called invasive ductal carcinoma, which is cancer that starts in the milk ducts and then it spreads to the surrounding tissue. I was extremely shocked and super scared.” said Blackwell.

She wasn’t the only one, Blackwell says doctors told her that this form of breast cancer isn’t commonly found in women under 50 and that she’s fortunate it was discovered in it’s early stages.

“That helps to get things out of the way and not worry so much about life-threatening or anything like that,” said Blackwell.

Once Shaw heard about the diagnosis, she and her staff immediately sprang into action, wanting to support Blackwell during this time with a shirt fundraiser. 50 percent of the profit will go to Blackwell and her family.

“I cried tears of joy because I haven’t been here a super long time, so just having your work come together like that to try and help you and especially this early. It’s just so overwhelming love, it’s really great,” said Blackwell.

”Holley and I have both said at separate times that we felt like God had a plan for her to be here when this diagnosis came. She was definitely meant to be here with us, for us to be supportive and it’s definitely our chance to be there for her,” said Shaw.