Alleghany County School Board recognizes teacher of the year fighting cancer

The Alleghany County School Board will recognize the 2014 "Teacher of the Year" at Monday night's meeting and the veteran teacher received the honor despite being in the fight for her life.

Renee Warren has taught kindergarten at Sharon Elementary School for 33 years.

Back in September, over Labor Day weekend, she learned she had stage three breast cancer.

After undergoing a double mastectomy she was back in the classroom two weeks later.

"I knew as a teacher I'm responsible for these little ones and I had just got them started in school, so my goal was to do the best that I could do with these children to get them ready for first grade," she explained.

Renee says support from the students and staff has helped keep her energy up even after surgery and chemo treatments.