CORALVILLE - Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful for everything we have. This year, one eastern Iowa woman is thankful for a very simple thing.

She's grateful every day simply to be alive.

Abbey Almelien relies on faith. Faith carries the 30-year-old Coralville woman through her battles with cancer.

"I first had cancer, diagnosed at 3 1/2," Abbey said.

Doctors told Abbey's family it was neuroblastoma on her kidney and the odds weren't good.

Abbey said, "With statistics, they gave me a 20 percent chance to make it through everything. I was one of the lucky ones and did."

In 2006, at the age of 27, Abbey had kidney cancer. Doctors removed her kidney and Abbey was back in her nurse's uniform in no time.

Then last year, more bad news. Abbey learned she had to fight cancer again.

"It's not any easier for her to be 29-30 from when she was 3 or 4," Abbey's mom Molly Iverson said.

The cancer was a very rare and aggressive type of sarcoma.

"After one round of chemo, we knew no, we can't do this. I can't tolerate it well," Abbey said.

Abbey's best chance for long-term survival was a life-changing surgery.

"It's really hard to tell a 29-year-old girl hey, we want to take your leg and hip because it really was my decision," said Abbey.

Two weeks later, Abbey agreed to the amputation. In September 2008, she lost her right leg.

Abbey said, "I thought oh good, my cancer is gone now, now it's time to get used to dealing with life with a disability."

Abbey's disability doesn't slow her down. She drives her own car. And she gets around on crutches.

"It sounds so challenging. She just makes it look so easy, she really does," best friend Jennifer Williams said.

Even in trying times, like learning to walk with a prosthetic leg, Abbey doesn't quit trying.

"There's a little magnet I saw, it says it'll all be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end," Abbey said.

This is not the end of Abbey's struggles with cancer. Her faith is now helping her fight, perhaps, her toughest battle yet. Last New Year's Eve Abbey learned the sarcoma cancer had spread to her heart and lungs. It's incurable.

"I don't deny it. I know it's a problem, but I just don't let it rule my life," Abbey says.

Abbey's attitude is to live life and have fun. She surrounds herself with family and friends.

"I have an excellent support system, that is what I think is the reason for dealing with things as well as I can," she says.

And no matter how hard things get, Abbey always worries most about her loved ones. "My family and just knowing the sadness that is left behind."

But Abbey prefers not to look too far down the road. She's fighting this battle day by day.

"She doesn't want anyone to think she gave up or lost the battle because she's a fighter," her mom said.

Abbey's beaten the disease twice before. And she's determined to do it again.

"I like to be realistic with where I am, but leave a lot of room for hope."

That's why Abbey depends most on her faith when she's fighting for her life.

Abbey did have chemotherapy at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics this past summer, and some of the sarcoma cancer in her lungs shrunk.

But she recently learned it spread to her skin. Abbey sees her doctors there every week.