WICHITA, Kansas, September 4, 2008 – A Wichita woman is involved in a study that may find a cure for breast cancer, but she’s never actually been diagnosed with it herself. But her sister did fight the disease and that’s exactly what researchers were looking for.

Cindy May lives in San Antonio. Her sister, Kim Schrage, was here in Wichita two years ago when she learned her younger sister had breast cancer and that Kim could be of use.

"They said, 'oh, if you have a sister you might think about the Sister Study,'" said Schrage.

The Sister Study is a long-term research project involving 50,000 women whose sisters had breast cancer.

"We had pages and pages. It took, like, three hours to fill out all the answers to the questions."

Kim received a kit, filled out numerous forms, submitted blood and even toenails.

"You had to collect dust samples around your house as well."

It was all in order to give researchers information about environmental exposure.

"When you find out that somebody has cancer you have this big void," said Schrage. "It's like, 'oh my God, oh my God, what can I do?' And this was, unfortunately, long distance so I couldn't hold her hand all the time and this was something that I felt worthy to do."

Cindy underwent a mastectomy, chemo and reconstruction. Two years later, she is doing fine. Her sister, however, is who the researchers are keeping track of hoping that the key to a cure may be wrapped up in family ties.

The Sister Study still needs people to take part but they are looking for sisters from specific populations. They need minorities between the ages of 35 and 74 and Caucasian women between the ages of 65 and 74. For more information on the study, you can visit their site at SisterStudy.org.