By Joy Robertson, KOLR-TV, Springfield, MO, November 23, 2006

Unless you''ve battled cancer, you have no idea the toll it takes - mentally, and physically - and the battle you are in to stay alive. Joy Robertson has a special Thanksgiving Personal Portrait.

I had no idea, until I got to know an Ozarks woman named Gloria Pennington.

Her battle with cancer has lasted nearly two years and this holiday, despite her struggle, she has more than usual to be thankful for.

I first met Gloria Pennington in May, 2005, as I followed her into a Springfield funeral home, to arrange her own funeral.

She figured she''d better prepare. Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma had been having it`s way with this single mother of three since she got sick in December, 2004.

Despite a perpetually sunny outlook, she wasn`t sure she would survive.

From chemotherapy, to a stem cell transplant in St. Louis where doctors harvested Gloria`s own stem cells, gave her ulta-high chemotheraphy, then reintroduced the cells to boost her blood count and immune system - the transplant worked.

For awhile, Gloria`s cancer was in remission. That is until last May. She called me from the hospital to tell me her cancer was back. She was bleeding internally.

She said she was at peace and ready to go. I took my kids, and that very day we went to say ''goodbye.'' I didn`t dare take the camcorder. It just didn`t seem right.

But a few days later, I got another call. Gloria had quit her medication and sent the Hospice people packing. She wasn`t ready to give up, and she was celebrating by brushhogging her land and showing off her deer stand. Her cancer is not gone, but neither is Gloria.

And that`s where we pick up the story. Gloria will spend Thanksgiving in St. Louis at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, getting another stem cell transplant. But this time, she will get someone else`s stem cells.

"It`s from a 30 year old male, a perfect match," Gloria says as an intervenous solution drains the donor cells into her body. "There`s the last bit of his stem cells going into me," she notes.

Thanks to what is in the IV bag, Gloria has a fighting chance. The cells carry new disease fighters, harvested from a healthy donor.

Gloria`s doctor, Dr. Amanda Cashen, says Gloria is in great physical condition only days since the transplants, so it`s so far, so good for her prognosis. "I would say a 50/50 chance," Cashen says. "With no serious complications, this will give her her best chance."

But there is a risk of complications, and Gloria knows that. "I`ll probably get sick before I get better. I know I will."

Her blood cell count will drop, as expected, in the next few days, and only time will tell if the donor cells and Gloria`s body will get along.

As she walks around the hospital, her home for the next 100 days, Gloria makes the best of things. She has already put up a small Christmas tree in her room.

She`ll spend Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year`s Eve here. And if all goes well, she will be released from the hospital on Valentine`s Day - just in time to tie the knot. Gloria''s boyfriend proposed earlier this year.

So Thanksgiving really is a little more special this year. And Gloria is especially thankful to the man who took the time to become a stem cell donor and give her the ultimate gift. If she could meet him, what would she say? "Thank you so much," Gloria says. "If not for him, I wouldn`t be sitting here."