(CNN) Bernadette McLaughlin's world turned upside-down on April 16, 1990, when a visit to the doctor revealed a surprising breast cancer diagnosis. "I was only 36 years old, and I was single," she said. "I just couldn't process anything he was saying." She worked full-time as a special-education teacher in New Jersey, but her most important job was raising her 8-year-old son, Michael. McLaughlin dreaded the thought of telling people she had cancer. "I remember I was laying on my stomach saying to myself, 'You're never going to have to tell anyone, because you're going to die tonight,' " she said of the night she got the news.Bernadette McLaughlin has survived three bouts with breast cancerAfter losing her implants to a staph infection, McLaughlin received mastectomy tattoos
"She tweeted me and said, 'This one's for you, _,' " McLaughlin said.