WOODSTOCK – Joe Cicero watched his mother fight for her life not once but three times before she finally succumbed to breast cancer.

“She was my hero, truly. To watch someone you love so dearly just slip away … it’s physically and emotionally draining, and it’s something you can’t let go of,” he said.

Cicero, morning host of McHenry County’s WZSR-FM Star 105.5, said goodbye to his 59-year-old mother, Anne Christine, in 2008. Last year, Cicero made the decision to get in shape and pay tribute to his hero rather than watch from the sidelines.