Cheryl Mann, 47, cancer fighter

While working at the American Cancer Society, Cheryl Mann of Canton made a deeply personal pitch to get people to donate to the cause.

“She would say, ‘I want you to give money to help save my life,’ ” said her husband, Ricky Mann. “She would word it in a way people would get it. Here’s this 40-something-year-old mom and she let them know contributions could help someone like her.”

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AJC file

When Cheryl Mann started losing her hair from cancer treatments, her husband, Ricky Mann, had his hair cut, too.

Mrs. Mann, first diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer in 2004, candidly talked about her fight against the disease at offices and company cafeterias across metro Atlanta.

She talked about how her husband warmed up lavender-scented socks in the microwave. And when she was going through chemotherapy and had nausea, Mr. Mann cleaned the toilet after she threw up. During the year she worked as manager of the Atlanta walk for the Cancer Society, she helped break a record, leading the effort to raise $750,000. Cheryl Mann, 47, died Saturday evening in hospice in Cartersville. The funeral will be 10 a.m. Saturday at Sandy Springs Chapel.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution followed Mrs. Mann and her husband in 2005 as they coped with her breast cancer diagnosis. The story ended on an upbeat note as she completed her aggressive treatment and put together a 10-year-wish list calling for a family trip to China, a cruise and redoing her children’s rooms.

But the cancer came back and then shrank again in a yo-yo cycle of good news and bad news, optimism and sober reality.

But through it all, Mrs. Mann kept her spunky personality and sense of humor. At the Cancer Society, she kept a spiky pink swim cap to make her co-workers laugh.

“She was wild and fun to work with and she believed everything could be worked out,” said Mary Ulich of Alpharetta, who worked with Mrs. Mann at the Cancer Society. “If we got frustrated, she would say, ‘OK, it’s time for ‘Get the Scoop.’ And we would go out for ice cream and she would call a [cancer] survivor to meet us there.”

Mrs. Mann turned to laughter on even the darkest of days. “Even during her last few days, she would say something funny and make a funny expression to make us all laugh,” Mr. Mann said.

Other survivors include two sons, Dylan Mann and Wyatt Mann; a daughter, Marissa Mann; her mother, Roberta Gilham of Covina, Calif.; her father, Carl Mullison of Beaumont, Calif.; a sister, Linda Sharp of Corcoran, Calif.; and a brother, Charles Mullison of Castlerock, Colo.