“Once I got past the initial shock of 'I have cancer, I'm pregnant, and what am I going to do,' I kind of put (breastfeeding) to the side,” Hayley Gunter said. “I got really sad because I wasn't going to able to nurse. A lot of people don't really understand how big of a deal that is.”

PANAMA CITY — Hayley, Tim and 6-year-old Riley Gunter moved to Panama City Beach from Norfolk, Virginia, in April 2015. At the time, Hayley was almost five months pregnant with daughter Luna.

The move went smoothly for Hayley and her husband, a petty officer first class in the Navy, but in August 2015, her midwife found a lump in her left left breast. Hayley was sent to a surgeon for a biopsy of the 5-centimeter lump. A week later, she got the results: It was cancer.

Breast cancer during pregnancy is rare, found in only about 1 in every 3,000 pregnant women, according the American Cancer Society. For Gunter, then eigh months pregnant, the diagnosis was urgent. Two weeks after she received the first biopsy result, she was having surgery. At that time, the lump had already grown to 9 centimeters.

“It was the craziest, busiest two weeks ever,” she said.

On Sept. 28, 2015, Gunter had surgery, leaving her with only her right breast for breastfeeding. She was scheduled to be induced Oct. 23, 2015, but baby Luna came a day early. She was born perfectly healthy at 7 pounds, 7 ounces. Gunter had three weeks to nurse her newborn before her chemotherapy treatment began.

“I was able to nurse for those three weeks, but I didn’t produce very much,” she said. “Obviously, I only had one breast, and you don’t make a whole lot in the beginning because the baby doesn’t need a whole lot.”

Most doctors recommend women who have just had babies and are about to be treated for breast cancer should not breastfeed. Many chemotherapy therapy drugs can enter breast milk and be passed on to the baby. But breastfeeding was important for Gunter, so she did what she could before beginning treatments.

“Once I got past the initial shock of ‘I have cancer, I’m pregnant, and what am I going to do,’ I kind of put (breastfeeding) to the side,” she said. “I got really sad because I wasn’t going to able to nurse. A lot of people don’t really understand how big of a deal that is.”

After realizing she would only be able to breastfeed Luna for three weeks, Gunter began to seek out milk donors. She called some milk banks but was told the banks usually only provide to babies who are in the neonatal intensive care unit in hospitals. But one bank referred her to local breastfeeding and milk donation groups. That’s when she found Human Milk 4 Human Babies - Florida on Facebook.

She posted a picture of baby Luna and a small description of what was going on, not really expecting to get any response.

“Within 24 hours, I had hundreds and hundreds of messages from people all over Florida,” she said. “I couldn’t even respond to all the messages because there were so many.”

A few local women gave Gunter small donations, and one woman in Jacksonville who was coming to visit Panama City had a group of her friends who were breastfeeding make a large donation.

Among the many people to see Gunter's post was Michele Ramsey, a nurse anesthesiologist at Bay Medical Center Sacred Heart Health System who has a baby about the same age as Luna.

“As soon as I read her story, I could think of nothing else but donating breast milk to this baby,” Ramsey said. “I told my husband, ‘I don’t know what it is, but I feel like I have to pump just for Luna.’ I couldn’t shake this thought that I was meant to get this message. And I was meant to have the baby, which was almost as the same time as her, so I could provide Luna with breast milk.”

Because Ramsey and Gunter had babies who were so close in age, Ramsey was willing to provide an ongoing donorship every week, all the way until Luna was 8 months old.

“She would meet with me when I was in chemo, usually on Mondays, and I would run outside with my cooler, sometimes with my pole still attached,” Gunter said.

Ramsey’s goal at first was to donate 100 ounces a week to Gunter, but she was able to modify her diet and pumping times to the point that she became Gunter's main milk donor for the duration of Luna’s breastfeeding.

Having a constant supply of milk for Luna relieved the guilt and worry Gunter felt when she wasn’t able to breastfeed.

“A cancer diagnosis comes with so much,” she said. “ It comes with this huge feeling of guilt, because there were days when I would just feel so sick that I couldn’t take care of (the children). I tried to make things as normal as I could for them, and having that one area of worry taken away, I can’t thank her enough.”

Gunter gives the most credit to her husband for all of his support to help her through her cancer diagnosis.

“Tim was so wonderful,” she said. “I wouldn’t have been able to make it if it hadn’t been for him. He stepped up and filled both roles on days I couldn’t do it.”

Gunter and Ramsey agree there seems to be a stigma around donating breast milk, and they hope to raise awareness of breast milk donation and educate others.

“I just want to inspire other people to donate if they can, to not feel bad if they can’t nurse and to reach out,” Gunter said. “There are people that will help you.”