When Missy Farr-Kaye found out she had breast cancer for the second time in 11 years, “I threw myself a pity party,” Arizona State’s spunky assistant women’s golf coach said.

“That lasted for about a day, and then I got on with (life).”

Two weeks later, “I feel so much better because my doctors gave me some unbelievably goods news — that the cancer has not spread (through the body), and that we can treat this,” Farr-Kaye said Monday. “I’m hopeful that with surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, we can take care of this once and for all and I can get back to living life with my three boys and my ASU team.’’

Farr-Kaye is the younger sister of former ASU/LPGA star Heather Farr, who fought breast cancer and championed its research in the early 1990s before losing the battle in 1993.

Farr-Kaye’s life has been upside down since she discovered a lump under her arm in early July.

A biopsy on July 7 confirmed it was “an aggressive form of breast cancer,’’ and she had surgery on July 11, when doctors removed 11 lymph nodes for testing.

“It hit me out of nowhere,’’ said the 40-year-old, whose last battle with breast cancer in 1998 amounted to a bilateral mastectomy without any radiation or chemotherapy.

“I’m pretty laid back, but when you feel (a lump under your arm), well, that’s like the worst thing you can feel,” she said. “I knew right away, before we even got the biopsy back, that it was a recurrence.”

Farr-Kaye, who like her older sister was a star for ASU before playing professionally, has been an assistant coach with the Sun Devils for the past six years. She said even though her life will be more complicated in the next six months as she undergoes surgery and reconstruction followed by chemotherapy and then radiation, “I’m going to try and be as normal as possible.’’

“I didn’t have chemo or radiation the first time, just a mastectomy. So this will be somewhat of a new experience for us, especially my boys (Dalton, 15, Riley, 10, and Cameron, 4),” she said.

ASU women’s coach Melissa Luellen said that Farr-Kaye, who played on ASU’s 1990 NCAA championship team, is a fighter.

“We were all praying for good test results and the prayers were answered,’’ Luellen said. “(But) it’s hard to know how much one family can endure.”

Farr-Kaye’s mother, Sharon Farr, also knows all too well how difficult it is to fight breast cancer.

But as she noted, “Times and treatment(s) have changed so much in the 15 years since Heather went through it.”

One in every 35 women who are diagnosed these days dies from it, according to American Cancer Society research.

“I have a lot of confidence in her doctors,” Sharon Farr said. “But there is still a lot of déjà vu for me. Like the other day when I was changing Missy’s dressing from her surgery, and I remembered doing that for Heather, and it just all came back.’’

Farr-Kaye said it’s like that for her, too. But she tries to keep focused on what lies ahead.

“To have watched Heather and what she went thorough, and then she didn’t make it... I know how this can work,’’ she said. “But I’m lucky in that I’ve got a terrific support group in my family and friends, and my ASU family.

“You can’t get through this on your own.’’

To reach Missy Farr-Kaye: Send cards and letters to: ASU Women’s Golf, PO Box 872505, Tempe, AZ, 85287-2505.