Lynne Mauney was 14 years old when she lost her father to cancer.

She was determined that history would not repeat itself.

At 38, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her son J.B. was 14 at the time. She and her husband Tim also have a daughter, Jessie, and Lynne was determined to make sure her children grew up with the support of both parents.

"You are not promised tomorrow," Lynne said. "You better live today like it's your last one."

"I wish it wouldn't have happened to her because it kind of scared me," J.B. admitted. "I thought she wasn't going to be here, and she pulled through it. It just shows you how tough she is, and it made me want to be a little tougher, too."

October is breast cancer awareness month.

Lynne and J.B. agreed to share their story as part of the PBR's inaugural Wrangler Tough Enough to Wear Pink program.

At each Built Ford Tough Series event in October - Charlotte; Hartford, Conn.; and Columbus, Ohio - the Saturday-night performance will be a designated "Wrangler Tough Enough to Wear Pink" night. All fans, staff and athletes at the event will be encouraged to wear pink.

The kickoff of the campaign will be on Saturday, Oct. 1, at the Troy-Bilt Invitational Presented by Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse.

Lynne is now 10 years cancer-free.

However, the Mauneys haven't forgotten the impact of her bout with cancer.

She was 28 when she had her first mammogram, and was told that once she turned 35, it was important to start having an annual checkup. She didn't.

In fact, had it not been for her mother Juanita Barker's diagnosis, Lynne wouldn't have gone back when she did.

"When she was diagnosed, I thought, 'I really ought to,'" said Lynne, who called the doctor three weeks later to schedule her own appointment. "I called her doctor and said, 'You know, I probably need to get in and get one of these.'

"They were like, 'Yeah. You do.'"

She ended up having a double biopsy.

"The left side was cancer and the right side wasn't," Lynne said of the results. "A year later, I went back for a mammogram on the right side, and they called me back into that little room like five times. The fifth time, I looked at her and said, 'You can do what you want. It won't be here in three weeks.'

"I walked out the door, called and scheduled it and had it removed."

She underwent seven surgeries in 18 months.

At the time, Tim was working nights. Jessie had already moved out of the house. That left J.B. to help take care of his mother.

Each day after school he'd return home, feed their horses and take care of his mother. Some nights he'd make dinner for the two of them. "That's if I could eat," added Lynne. Other nights he'd walk over to his grandmother's house, have a quick dinner with her and then return home to be with Lynne.

Of course, there were bad nights.

On those evenings he'd cradle her in his lap and hold her head up so that she could throw up in a waste basket next the couch.

"Whatever she needed, I would do," J.B. said. "It's a good thing I have a strong stomach, because that would have made any person sick, but that's your mom and you'll do anything for her.

"If mom can go through that being a little old short woman, then I ought to be tough enough to ride bulls."

"It made him a stronger person," Lynne added, "but J.B. has always been compassionate. People don't know that. He is. Watch him with his little girl and you'll see. He was just always that way - even before I had cancer."

As sick as Lynne was, she missed only two of J.B.'s and Jessie's junior rodeos from the time they were just starting out until they were 18. She missed one because of her cancer treatments, and one to stay home and tend to a sick horse.

Back then the family traveled together in a motor home.

"If mom can go through that being a little old short woman, then I ought to be tough enough to ride bulls."

Lynne would rest on the couch, and just before J.B. was up, she would make her way out to a seat on the bottom row of the bleachers. Afterward she returned to the couch.

"I was probably sicker than most people knew," said Lynne, who until then had been a smoker for 25 years, "but my family knew."

Even then there were those humorous moments.

Those were the times when J.B. would take it upon himself to lighten mood and give everyone in the motor home - including Lynne - and opportunity to laugh as they made their way down the highway.

"Boy, we had a lot of fun when she lost her hair and was wearing a wig," J.B. joked. "I'd snatch that thing off her head while we were riding down the road and it would freak people out in the car beside us when they were looking."

The Mauneys have always been known to be tough-minded individuals.

Lynne said it goes back to her father's illness.

He was 36 when he had one of his legs removed, and in 1978, he died at the age of 48, but not before teaching his daughter one last lesson.

He told her, "You might not have tomorrow. You better make the best of today."

She later added, "Don't have regrets. That's the reason I would have somebody drive me to work and I would go to work before I could even drive, because lying in that bed depressed me. I was sicker at home with worry than if I was there."

With no guarantees, the Mauney family made the best of each day.

"It was just a little bit of sickness," said Lynne, who explained that the surgeries weren't nearly as terrible to overcome as the chemo treatments. "I'd literally be in bed for 10 days."

PBR fans attending any of the BFTS events in October can purchase an exclusive PBR Wrangler "Tough Enough To Wear Pink" adult T-shirt for $15 or a youth T-shirt for $10.

These commemorative shirts can only be found at the Built Ford Tough Series events during the month of October. Half of the proceeds from all pink-shirt sales will benefit the Cancer Research Foundation.

"My mom pulled through it," J.B. said, "and it shows that you can do it. It's bad, but you can do it."

"Women, get checked," Lynne said. "If they told you that you need to do it, don't wait.

"I believe everything in this world happens for a reason, and had I gone earlier, mine might not have been to the stage that they thought it was very aggressive, and they might have treated it differently."