Spend some time with Laura Davis and you’ll discover a woman who packs an hour into every minute of her day.

Arriving to interview her at Rinck Advertising in Auburn, which she owns and operates with husband, Peter Rinck, she was standing front and center speaking to about eight staffers of the agency intently describing a recent experience.

“I was just talking (to staff) about a client phone call that turned out really well,” said Davis. She excuses herself quickly from the impromptu meeting and heads toward a conference room where she sits down to be interviewed.

First impressions say that Davis is a creative woman who works hard and has fun. (One agency staffer affirms that she has a great sense of humor.) But there’s also an urgency in her eyes that says, perhaps, she’s a woman on a mission racing against time.

The latter is no surprise as she introduces herself as a cancer survivor. Not once, not twice, but five times over.

“I was first diagnosed at the age of 25 about three weeks after my daughter was born,” said Davis. “My most recent diagnosis was three months ago.”

Her first bout of cancer was Hodgkin’s Lymphoma followed by thyroid cancer. The other three cancers have been basal cell carcinoma, a skin cancer that may have developed because of years of radiation therapy.

In the 25 years since the first diagnosis, she’s had 13 surgeries and radiation treatment exposure equivalent to 46,000 x-rays.

“I call myself the ‘mobile Chernobyl’,” she says, comparing her exposure to that of the power plant meltdown of 1986 in the Ukraine.

Davis grew up in Turner, Maine and was a teacher at Montello School and Hebron Academy. After teaching for eight years, she decided “it was time to do something else.”

Always having a flair for creativity, she contacted a local advertising agency to see if she could do an unpaid internship to learn the business. “I was the oldest intern in history,” she admits, noting that it was during this time that she met her future husband who was also working at the ad agency.

Perhaps inevitably, her life struggle with cancer blends into her personal and professional life. She’s been an active volunteer and board member with the Maine Cancer Foundation, a grant-making organization that raises funds for cancer research, education and patient support programs in Maine. She’s completed the Tri for a Cure triathlon, a fundraising event that has participants swimming one-third mile, biking for 15 miles and running for three miles — with all proceeds benefitting cancer research.

Her business, Rinck Advertising, is also a sponsor and marketing partner for the Dempsey Challenge, a non-competitive bicycle ride, which supports the Dempsey Center for Cancer, Hope, and Healing at Central Maine Medical Center. “The first year of the fundraiser was a phenomenal success,” said Davis. There’s excitement in her eyes as she anticipates a bigger and better event in 2010.

Davis proudly switches the discussion to her family life.

“Peter and I have been married for five years and we were together six years before that,” noted Davis. “We are a blended family of Peter’s son, Calvin (age 26), and my own children, Sarah (age 21) and Jacob (age 16).” After taking a short breath, Davis continued “and then we have two adopted children, Amy (age 29) and Isabella (age 8) who are biological sisters.”

It seems that amidst the turmoil of health problems and building an advertising business, Davis and her family found time to develop a special bond with a former high school student, Amy, who moved in with them as a teenager. “We later discovered that Amy had a younger sister, who we met and provided foster care to. They both became a part of our family.”

In what some might consider an unusual move, Davis and her husband offered to adopt 24-year-old Amy into their family. A year after that adoption was completed, they adopted Amy’s younger sister.

In spite of the many challenges she’s experienced, Davis looks about a decade younger than her chronological age of 46 … and her optimism is inspirational.

“Treat every day as if it were your last … do what you love,” she said. As for her drive to volunteer and help others, she said, “I feel responsibility … the ability to respond to something. I also have a low tolerance for boredom.”

While hoping to keep ahead of her health challenges, Davis has a short list of goals for the future.

“I want to grow the agency by importing more dollars into Maine. I want to successfully register 7,500 people in the Dempsey Challenge and I want, simply, happiness.”

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