Darla Bardelli Casts Toward A New Future

"In it to win it" is Darla Bardelli's favorite slogan. Whether she's battling big fish on the end of a line as a professional angler, waging the fight of her life against breast cancer, or presenting her "Outdoors Arizona" weekly radio program, Bardelli isn't one to go quietly. In August 2007, she discovered she had breast cancer, just as her marriage was falling apart.

While going through six grueling months of chemotherapy, followed by a double mastectomy, and a further two months of radiation, Bardelli was pleased to find various programs to support her on her journey. But she also found a glaring omission. "What about my family?" she asked. "How were they going to deal with me having breast cancer?" What she discovered was very little in the way of information and support, for the men and families of those who had a woman they loved, going through this huge battle. Bardelli also found out a large number of marriages fell apart after a breast cancer diagnosis, so she set about creating her own charity, Anglers Against Breast Cancer. "My goal is educating men and families as co-survivors, and my passion is fishing, so there was no better way to get the word out."

Though Bardelli divorced in 2008, she's applied what she'd learned from fighting fish in her own personal battles. "When you're diagnosed with cancer, your world kind of spins out, and you have to focus on a goal to make it through the treatments — because they're brutal! Whenever I put on my tournament shirt, it's almost ritualistic. I'm focused and ready to go out and compete. So for the chemo, I put on my tournament shirt, so I could be focused when I went into that room. I was in there for a battle, and I was in there to win."