NORWAY — When Kristen Short’s doctors diagnosed her with cancer, the lifelong performer wanted to be alone in the dark.

“I think your first reaction is to go hide under a rock,” Short said.

She was only 44. Tests had found a mass in her breast. There were worries about her body’s systems. And she had counted on living so many more years.

“If anybody even looked at me, I’d fall apart,” she said.

She rarely let it show.

The singer-songwriter discovered a reservoir of strength beneath her fear and anxiety.

“I felt like I had to be strong for my kids and not completely fall apart,” she said. Her children — Isaiah, Ian and Allie — were 3, 7 and 9 years old. They needed their mom. And her husband, Chris, needed his wife.

She endured.

There would be two surgeries, six rounds of chemotherapy and 28 radiation treatments.

And in the middle of it all — only days before her first devastating dose of chemo — she took the stage at the inaugural Dempsey Challenge in October 2010 and sang the national anthem.

“I didn’t realize how powerful that was going to be,” she said. “To see so many people emotionally invested in this event and coming together for such an amazing cause. I looked at folks as I was singing, and I could feel the emotion as I was singing to them. It was very, very powerful.

Two years later, Short is in remission from her cancer.

And she is being honored by the challenge and one of its biggest sponsors, Amgen. Short has been named the 2012 Amgen Breakaway from Cancer Survivor Award winner.

It’s given each year to a cancer survivor who is involved in Central Maine community outreach and demonstrates a passion for helping others with cancer.

During this year’s challenge on Oct. 13 and 14, she’ll be honored at its Champions for Hope Celebration. She’ll again start both days of the challenge with the national anthem.

She’ll also represent her family’s newly created charity, Short Folks for Hope Foundation.

Through the charity, her children have created fundraising projects. Allie, now 11, sells crocheted goods though Yippie Yarn Creations. Ian, 9, sells Legos-To-Go, repackaging his Legos in plastic bags. Five-year-old Isaiah created Bands and Badges of Hope, selling pins and rubber bracelets. Kristen’s husband, Chris, a physician, takes photos for the effort.

And Kristen, who has written about 50 songs and is now working on a sixth album, sells her music.

She has been donating half of the proceeds from her song, “Chairs,” to the Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope & Healing at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston. So far, the family effort raised about $4,500.

Short wrote “Chairs” about the center after a visit there.

“The center is just so amazing, because you can feel the energy that comes through there,” she said. She was inspired during a chat with Mary Dempsey, who serves as the center’s assistant director and is the sister of actor Patrick Dempsey.

“‘Just think of all the stories that have happened in these chairs,’ is all I said,” Short said. “And Mary simply said, ‘If these chairs could talk.'”

She went home and wrote it that night.

The song begins bleakly but grows hopeful.

“When you’re weary, sit a while,” she wrote. “Give me time, I’ll make you smile. I’m a friend that you can lean on.”

The music has helped Short.

“It’s been with me as long as I can remember,” she said. “It’s been therapeutic to me. Emotional things are fodder for creativity. It’s not that you want to introduce that into your life on purpose, but for me it’s a way of coping.”

Raising money and encouraging people with cancer to go to the center is fortunate side benefit, she said.

“Walk right in, and they’ll be able to give you some guidance, give you hugs and help you through those first painful moments,” she said. “It will also help you through the rest of your journey.”

“However long you want to go to the Dempsey Center, they’ll be there for you,” she said.

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