ORANGE PARK – Lisa Felegy probably wouldn’t be alive today if she didn’t contract breast cancer.

She went into cardiac arrest following a double mastectomy reconstructive surgery and that led to a heart transplant. Nine months later, she is cancer-free with a healthy heart, which allows her to do what she loves most – baking cookies.

“I went into cardiac arrest in recovery,” Lisa said. “I had a great nurse. She told me there was something wrong. ‘What do you mean? I feel fine.’ I mean, I was awake, but my heart was just going crazy. They did not have to do CPR. I had no idea that I had heart issues. Zero idea.”

Lisa’s family had a history of cancer, so when she was diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer, she was proactive to have her breasts removed. While she was in the hospital following reconstructive surgery, her life changed.

For the good.

She was being treated for cardiac sarcoidosis, which is a collection of inflammatory cells, for two years with medications and minor procedures. While the growths often go away on their own, they can lead to organ damage.

Lisa was placed on the heart transplant list and she was in surgery six days later.

“I needed a heart you know, everything happens so very quickly for me,” she said. “Just because I wasn't in the hospital waiting like most people do, it was different for me. My doctor called and asked, ‘What are you doing?’ I told him I was making cookies. I had cookies all over my house because I was getting ready for market on Saturday. He said, ‘I have a heart for you.’ I threw all my chargers and a couple shirts in a bag and went to the hospital.”

Lisa was the first person to get a new heart in what’s called the “Heart in a Box” procedure. Instead of a heart being harvested from a donor, placed on ice and being transplanted within four hours, her heart was kept beating with a heart-lung machine.

Now healed and healthy, she has redirected herself to making cookies and being an advocate for organ donations.

“I'm learning to enjoy the people that are in my life,” she said. “I’m loving what I'm doing with my little cookie business. More than that, you know, life is too short. I just turned our spare room into my cookie room now that our kids are gone. It’s kind of exploded, It's great.”

Her business, Beachy Bakes, offers a variety of handcrafted cookies.

“I really just started out as being a creative outlet for me,” she said.

And only made possible by contracting breast cancer.