Saint Francis swimmer Katie Lafferty beat ovarian cancer in 2014, and her story is now being shared with a wider audience through a video package produced by the Northeast Conference.

Lafferty, a junior business major from Bremen, Indiana, had surgery in April 2014. She had been diagnosed with dysgerminoma, one of the rarest forms of ovarian cancer in young women.

Lafferty was diagnosed with the disease after she had signed a letter of intent to swim at Saint Francis in the fall of 2013.

“She told me her mom beat breast cancer and that she would beat ovarian cancer,” said SFU swimming coach Rory Coleman. “She said it like it was a fact.”

Lafferty underwent chemotherapy in the summer of 2014 before heading to Loretto for her first year of college.

“I didn’t necessarily think it would stop me from swimming, but I didn’t think that I would have an impact (at Saint Francis),” said Lafferty.

She was wrong.

At last year’s Northeast Conference Championship, Lafferty won the 500-yard freestyle event in 4.53.19 and she placed third in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 51.19.

With her performance at last year’s NEC finals, Coleman felt that Lafferty made a statement. “I am not someone who has cancer anymore,” said Coleman with reference to Lafferty’s performances. “I am someone who can be a champion.”

Lafferty will lead her team into this year’s Northeast Conference Championship meet, which will be held Feb. 15-18 at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Click the link to watch the video on Lafferty that was produced by the NEC: