Relay for Life, Avon walkers describe the sweat, blood and tears
of cancer fights
Gloria MacVicar looked like the picture of health Saturday
afternoon as she gathered with her family and friends at Christmas
Hill Park. She is a picture of health, trim with short, dark hair
and golden brown skin. But four years ago the Gilroy resident was
diagnosed with borderline stage-three breast cancer.
Relay for Life, Avon walkers describe the sweat, blood and tears of cancer fights
Gloria MacVicar looked like the picture of health Saturday afternoon as she gathered with her family and friends at Christmas Hill Park. She is a picture of health, trim with short, dark hair and golden brown skin. But four years ago the Gilroy resident was diagnosed with borderline stage-three breast cancer.
“I was in total denial,” MacVicar said of her diagnosis. “Before I got cancer, I was really into working out and getting into shape. I was working out five days a week.”
After her diagnosis, her doctor told her she would need a mastectomy followed by chemotherapy and radiation.
“I felt sorry for me at the beginning,” she said. “I started to go downhill.”
After a lumpectomy that removed a chunk of her breast tissue, a biopsy found that the cancer was aggressive. She under went another lumpectomy and started chemotherapy a month later. In the end, she did not need a mastectomy.
During the eight and a half months she was undergoing chemotherapy, a friend invited MacVicar to walk as a survivor in Gilroy’s Relay for Life – an annual 24-hour event that raises money and awareness of all types of cancers sponsored by the American Cancer Society.
Since then, MacVicar has regained her health and gone into remission. But she hasn’t forgotten her struggle with cancer. For the last three years, she has organized a Relay for Life team with family and friends to raise money for ACS as well as to support other survivors.
“I’m out here because I don’t think I would be here now if it weren’t for people like these,” she said. “This is my thank you.”
Over the weekend, more than 35 teams like MacVicar’s gathered at Christmas Hill Park to celebrate cancer survivors, remember those lost to the disease and to raise money for ACS. During the event, teams choose a theme, decorate a tent and make sure they have at least one team member walking on a quarter-mile track at all times.
MacVicar’s sister, Glenda Henry, signed up for three hours on the track. She took an afternoon shift as well as a 3 a.m. to 4 a.m. and a morning shift of the walk. As she finished up her first hour on the track on the breezy afternoon, she recalled when she first found out her sister had been diagnosed with cancer.
“It was shocking and kind of sad. I thought this can’t happen to my family,” Henry said. “She’s always been the healthy one. She takes care of herself. She doesn’t smoke and goes to the gym.”
While her sister underwent chemotherapy, Henry said she often found herself at a loss for words when visiting MacVicar.
“I didn’t know what to talk to her about,” she said.
MacVicar kept many of the details of her treatment to herself, preferring to attend doctor’s appointments on her own, without her children, sister or husband. During her treatment, she kept working full-time at California Silk Screening, a T-shirt screening shop she owns in Gilroy.
“I had treatments on Friday night,” she said. “I slept all day Saturday and Sunday – chemo takes a lot out of you – and then I’d be back to work on Monday.”
MacVicar kept her family from being involved in her treatments because handling it herself made her feel in control.
“I realized I was letting cancer control me,” she said of her initial depression after her diagnosis. “I changed my attitude. You have to have a good attitude or you are not going to get well.”
With teams still waiting to turn in last minute donations and those collected during the weekend event, the teams in Gilroy had already raised more than $61,000 through online donations by June 9 for the American Cancer Society.
The money raised by the teams is used for a variety of programs offered by ACS including research, patient support and education programs as well as prevention and risk reduction programs.
“We do send some money to the national office and they reinvest that in researchers,” said Angie Carillo, the marketing communications director for the Silicon Valley/Central Coast ACS. “There are products that our national office provides for us, such as brochures, videos and all the things we use in our education.”
During 2004-2005, ACS of Silicon Valley/Central Coast used money raised from events such as the Relay for Life to give out information to more than 4,300 callers through a 24-hour hotline. Nearly 300 patients undergoing treatment received transportation assistance in the region to get to treatment appointments.
Although the Relay for Life has ended, a regional cancer fundraiser is still underway and some local residents are busy collecting for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, including two Hollister women.
The Avon Foundation donates more than 75 percent of the money collected through the breast cancer walks to research, medical, social service and community-based organizations. While they donate money to programs throughout the nation, they try to keep the funds in the region they are raised.
Bonnie Ramirez and Tonya Lombardo signed up with the “911 Angels” along with 16 other women who work or have worked as 911 dispatchers for the San Jose Police Department. Each woman agreed to raise at least $1,800 and the team is near their $40,000 goal. In Hollister, Ramirez received donations from places such as Boutique de Lingerie, Ridgemark Golf Course and Country Club and the Running Rooster.
Ramirez has several reasons for joining the walk but the main one is the loss of a close friend to breast cancer five years ago. When her friend was diagnosed, Ramirez watched her battle the disease before she died and said she has been scared of cancer ever since.
“This is a way to empower myself,” she said of the walk. “It allows me to do something instead of just standing around.”
During her training for the marathon and a half walk, Ramirez started out each trek thinking about her friend and a relative who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer.
“I think about her and then I think about how committed I feel,” she said. “It’s less than a month away and it’s been a big build up for the last four months with fundraising. I am just really anxious to have the day get her so I can get started.”
Resources:
· American Cancer Society – www.cancer.org or 1-800-ACS-2345 (1-800-227-2345)
· The Skin Cancer Foundation – www.skincancer.org or 1-800-SKIN-490 (1-800-754-6490
· Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation – www.komen.org or 1-800-I’M AWARE (1-800-462-9273)
Donate:
· American Cancer Society – www.cancer.org/docroot/don/don_0.asp or 1-800-227-2345
· 911 Angels/Avon Walk for Breast Cancer – Visit http://walk.avonfoundation.org and click on San Francisco to donate to Bonnie Ramirez, Tonya Lombardo or others participating in the regional fundraiser.
