Many of you already know my story…Almost 21 years ago I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Metastatic Breast Cancer.  The impact on my life was immediate and staggering.  How would it affect me:  as a wife, a mother, a daughter and a woman?  Thankfully, due in part to advances made possible by Komen researchers, I am thriving.

What is MBC?  Metastatic Breast Cancer (MBC) is an advanced stage (stage IV) of breast cancer where tumor cells have spread to other parts of the body, such as the bones, liver, lungs, or brain. Nearly all breast cancer deaths are due to MBC. In fact, it kills over 44,000 people in the U.S. every year.  It’s estimated there were more than 168,000 women living with metastatic breast cancer in the U.S. in 2020.  

The 5-year relative survival rate for people whose breast cancer is contained to the breast is 99%. Once breast cancer metastasizes to areas outside of the breast and surrounding regional lymph nodes—often spreading to the bones, liver, lungs, or brain—the 5-year relative survival rate drops to 29%. 

I am one of the lucky ones!  Why?  I don't know.  I just am.  So many with my exact diagnosis are no longer with us.  I have moments of survivor guilt where I ask "why me"?  What makes me different from the others?  Why has treatment worked for me and not them?  In my head I can rationalize the scientific reasons but my heart is another matter.  My heart aches for the ones we have lost and the loved ones they have left behind.

2025 marks my 16th walk with the Susan G. Komen San Diego 3-Day, along with my team, Powered by Optimism.  Every single person on this team has been affected in one way or another by breast cancer, yet each member is POWERED by the knowledge that we can and will achieve our goal; a world without breast cancer.  The training is hard.  But, it's not as hard as a cancer diagnosis.  It's not as hard as chemo.  It's not as hard as daily radiation for weeks or years on end.  It's not as hard as reconstructive surgery and everything that goes along with it.  Trust me, I’ve been there and done it!

What keeps us going?  We are POWERED BY OPTIMISM.  We know down deep in our hearts that we will be a part of a cure. We won't give up.  We can't.  We won't take a break because Cancer doesn't take breaks. 

Walking 60 miles is hard, but I will keep walking until Breast Cancer is no longer a threat.  I walk so that no one will ever have to experience the ravages of Breast Cancer.  I walk as a survivor, a mother and a woman living with Breast Cancer.  I walk because others cannot.  I walk because EVERYONE DESERVES A LIFETIME.