In March 1999, Dr. Jerri Nielsen, the only physician among the 41 men and woman at the South Pole, found a lump in the right part of her chest. Right then she wasn't too worried because she had found lumps before, and she was having such fun at the South Pole. But the thing she didn't know yet was that the lump was cancer and she could not go back to America. She was stuck at the South Pole until October.

Over the next several months she emailed doctors in the United States and began to treat her cancer herself. The National Science Foundation decided to have the Air Force fly over and drop medical supplies to Dr. Nielsen on July 10 without landing anywhere at the Pole. On October 15, 1999, in under dangerous conditions, a New York Air National Guard LC-130 Hercules landed at the Pole, to take Dr. Jerri Nielsen and leave another physician at the Pole. She was returned to Ohio for treatment and in April, 2000, was told that she was cancer free.

Dr. Jerri Nielsen is a very well known survivor because not everybody can survive both cancer and Antarctica!