PEMBROKE, Mass. -- The youngest of four sisters diagnosed with breast cancer lost her battle with the disease Saturday.

Paula Swanson, 46, was the first of the Swanson sisters to be diagnosed.

"I got the brunt of it. I thought it was because I could handle it better than my sisters. Then they were diagnosed and that blows that idea," she told NewsCenter 5's Kelley Tuthill in an interview last month.

Paula was first diagnosed in 2002. The cancer returned five years later and spread to other parts of her body. Then, the sisters say, the cancer metastized through their family.

Trish Swanson was diagnosed in November 2007. Paula and Trish called themselves the "cancer twins" until Debbie's diagnosis a month later.

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"I had to tell my sisters on Christmas," Debbie Ryan said.

Then Lisa Swanson got the grim news on April Fool's Day.

Tests showed four of the sisters tested positive for a mutation in a gene known as BRCA 2, putting them at high risk for both breast and ovarian cancer. Their mother died of ovarian cancer at the age of 67.

Paula's death came quickly last week. She and her sisters appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America."

On Thursday, she was trying to hang a shower curtain in her home and get her own dinner. Friday afternoon, she sat with family and friends in her back yard.

I just remember her face, soaking up the sun, feeling the warmth of the fire,” her sister Trisha Swanson Bergeron told the Patriot Ledger. “She was still Paula.”

Only the oldest sister, Gail Molla, an oncology nurse, has tested negative for the gene.

“"I felt guilty wondering why I was spared. Being the oldest sister and the caregiver, I thought somebody needs to take care of everybody," she said.

In the past month, Paula had a chance to see the Grand Canyon, something she had always wanted to do. Her daughter, Laura, and sister Gail accompanied her on the trip.