Tamara (Heishman) Howard was born in Kansas City, Missouri, grew up in the Northland and has lived here her entire life. Her Father and late Mother, Janey Heishman, have owned and operated Liberty Cycle Center for over thirty years.

Tamara met Russ Howard of Gladstone in 1983 and they married in 1986. They have two children, Russ Jr. is age 22, and Tiffany is 20 years old.

Tamara and Russ own and operate Concrete Works and have for over twenty years in Gladstone, Missouri.

In October 2006, Tamara had a routine medical exam and was found to have a knot in her upper abdomen. The first diagnosis was liver cancer. She was referred to a highly recommended surgical specialist who ordered more tests. The specialist then came to the conclusion that it was an irregular blood vessel. We asked for a biopsy and were told “Oh no, we don’t want to biopsy that because you never want to stick a needle in a blood vessel.” We then danced through the parking lot to the truck thinking life was good.

In July 2007, stomach pains and aches caused us to return to our family doctor. He sent us out for another scan. It was then that we discovered that a misdiagnosis had been made ten months earlier and was cancer after all.