Inside Prevention

Prevention Is Power: A different road

We've known Ann Maechtlen since 2008, the first time she signed up for Climb Against the Odds. She's one of those people who immediately, intuitively understands the Breast Cancer Fund's environmental perspective on the disease, largely because of her own cancer diagnoses. Recently interviewed by the Sacramento Bee for an article about the proliferation of pink during October, Ann shares with us here her own perspective on prevention:

Greetings from Missoula, Montana! The fall colors are beautiful and the air is crisp. I get a little sad this time every year as I say goodbye to long warm days full of friends and fun adventures outdoors and spend more time indoors with shorter colder days. My sadness lifts when the snow starts falling and I can go nordic skiing or snowshoeing.

It’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month, also the anniversary of my breast cancer diagnosis (five years) and 29 1/2 years since my Hodgkin's diagnosis. At age 22 I had cancer—back when I didn't know anyone who had ever had cancer!

Hodgkin's was a very scary disease for me, and people were afraid it was contagious. In 1982 there was no Internet, no support groups and no cancer groups waiting to help, so I was on my own. The public library was my new best friend. The first book I picked up was called, “First You Cry”—how true!

I had a doctor who believed my cancer was caused by exposure to chemicals on my family’s ranch in Southern California. That doctor planted that seed, which took many years to germinate. I found myself reading labels more and avoiding products with ingredients I couldn’t pronounce in my quest for good health.

I also noticed more and more chemicals in cosmetics and cleaners and in trying to avoid them I have found it easier to make my own.

After my breast cancer diagnosis I realized I needed to make big changes to really get healthy and get past cancer. I quit drinking alcohol, changed some other habits and did a lot of emotional healing. After completing nine months of chemotherapy I was really happy just to be alive, and I needed to celebrate!

Then the Breast Cancer Fund came into my life and I learned about the Climb Against the Odds. I knew I had to climb the mountain! I climbed Mt. Shasta in 2008, nine months after I finished chemo. I climbed again this year, thinking maybe it would be easier. No, it was still hard!

I was—and still am—thrilled that the Breast Cancer Fund is looking at prevention rather than finding a cure. Cancer has become big business…too big. I have seen enough lives torn apart and cut short from this disease; I want to see it disappear, at least back to the levels found before the 1980s.

I would like to empower people with real information and real choices in their lives to stay healthy. I see cancer groups working to support cancer patients, which is good, but how about going down a different road of no cancer?

Prevention Is Power: A new path

Breast cancer survivor Betsy Ogden climbed Mt. Shasta with the Breast Cancer Fund's Climb Against the Odds 2011 team, and in doing so found a journey of her own choosing post-cancer. Read her reflections on cancer, mountains and prevention in today's blog, part of our October Prevention Is Power campaign. Thank you, Betsy!

Knowledge. Power. Strength. Change. This is what prevention means to me.

On a September Sunday in 2009, I completed my first-ever solo summit of Mt. Moosilauke, one of New Hampshire’s 48 4,000-foot mountains. It was a beautiful, crisp fall day and I felt strong and proud, and excited about my new-found love of hiking.

Three days later, following a routine mammogram, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I was a strong, healthy, active physical therapist and Pilates practitioner and had no family history of the disease.

And so began what I now call my “forced march,” a journey not of my choosing, into the world of breast cancer diagnosis, treatment and remission.

Over the next few months I often felt powerless, sometimes frightened. My choices in life revolved around treatment options, recurrence rates and outcome statistics. My business struggled as the fatigue of treatment took its toll. Finally treatment ended and I became a survivor, and started to figure out my new life, co-existing with the reality of cancer ever-present.

Through all of this I came to understand that my cancer’s origin was likely somewhere in the environment. And on a very personal level, I knew that I needed and wanted to do something to reclaim my life’s journey, the journey cancer had hijacked.

I needed a mountain to climb, literally, and in October 2010 I joined the Breast Cancer Fund’s Climb Against the Odds 2011 team. As I look back, I see how much personal strength I drew from the months of fundraising and training for the climb. I pushed myself to physical limits and raised thousands of dollars from supporters. Each step along the way, I was encouraged by the amazing staff of the Breast Cancer Fund.

And finally, I climbed Mt. Shasta in June 2011 along with 33 other survivors and supporters. I did not reclaim my life’s journey on Shasta. Rather, I started on a whole new path, where powerlessness and fear in the face of the disease have no place.

The Breast Cancer Fund has shown me that we can and must face the disease head-on. We work so that others never have to feel the powerlessness of diagnosis, the fear of treatment and the uncertainty of the future.

I believe that prevention is the only acceptable future for breast cancer. Using solid scientific inquiry to identify environmental causes of the disease, we have knowledge. And with that knowledge and the leadership of the Breast Cancer Fund, we have the power and strength to change the course of this disease. We will and must educate and advocate so that young women, women of color, all of us at risk of environmental exposure will not have to fear what we do not know or understand.
 
I have climbed mountains since the Breast Cancer Fund's Climb Against the Odds 2011, and I hope to climb many more. I take every opportunity I can to speak of the good work of the organization and I try to make my own small world safer and less toxic for my loved ones and me.

Each of us must do what we can, where we can. And, in the end, that will be enough. And I know that someday, in the not too distant future, our children and grandchildren will live in a world where breast cancer is, very simply, prevented. 

Prevention Is Power: Through treatment, up mountains and toward a healthy future

Shiera Brady Henderson climbed Mt. Shasta this June with the Breast Cancer Fund's 2011 Climb Against the Odds team. Shiera faced the mountain with immense strength, and today, as part of our October Prevention Is Power campaign, we're happy to share with you her reflections on the power of prevention:

The feeling of ultimate power swept over me as I took the final step to reach the 14,000-foot summit of Mt. Shasta. The thin air and grueling climb that began at 2 a.m. makes breathing difficult. Yet, as I stand roped together with my four fellow climbers on top of the world, I exhale with great pride and gratitude. On this 10th anniversary of being a breast cancer survivor, I celebrate not just a milestone, but also the return of once again being in charge of my life. 

That sense of power drains from your body when you are diagnosed with breast cancer—malignant cells destroying not only your breast tissue but also your confidence and self-esteem buried deep inside your heart. How does a 39-year-old healthy mom with no family history get breast cancer? What did I do wrong? Am I going to die?

I was diagnosed with aggressive invasive ductal carcinoma. No warning, no symptoms, just confirmation that this awful disease was already leaching into my lymphatic system. I had discovered a little bump during a self-exam and although that turned out to be a cyst, the mammogram showed those suspicious-looking spots on the other breast. Suddenly, a regimen of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation controlled my life. I was no longer in charge of potty-training my two-year-old; my only job was to win the cancer battle.

How does this happen? Why does our treatment for breast cancer include terms like toxins and radiation—the very things we believe cause cancer?  Why is everyone working on a cure? Don’t we want to know why more and more of us are getting breast cancer in the first place?

Although I realized the obvious value in finding the perfect cure, I knew in my heart that the real problem lied in the cause. I started paying more attention to what I ate, the ingredients in those foods, and most importantly, what I fed my children. I had an 8-year-old daughter who now had a family history of breast cancer. I needed to do all I could to prevent cancer from being a part of her life.

Desperate to find peace and healing and to restore my health, I developed a love for the outdoors and discovered the cathartic power of hiking. I started with day hikes in the hills behind my house; soon the trails became longer and the mountains higher. The physical accomplishment of climbing tall mountains slowly began rebuilding my self-confidence. 

Along the way, I discovered the work of the Breast Cancer Fund. I knew instantly I had found the perfect partner when I learned they advocate for the elimination of preventable causes of breast cancer and they build awareness by hiking and climbing tall mountains! Detection is critical—a self-exam and mammogram undoubtedly saved my life. Ultimately, however, I want to know what caused my breast cancer. I have learned so much from this great organization that works tirelessly to educate us and to demand better public policy.

That glorious day of rediscovering myself on the Breast Cancer Fund’s Climb Against the Odds lives vividly in my mind today. It is a constant reminder of the power we have to push forward on hard days during chemotherapy, up precipitous mountains, and in our unrelenting efforts to prevent breast cancer.

An interview with 2011 climber Betsy Ogden (Vermont Sports, Sept./Oct. 2011)

Breast cancer survivor, physical therapist and New Hamphire resident Betsy Ogden gave a great interview about the Breast Cancer Fund's Climb Against the Odds 2011 for the current issue of Vermont Sports magazine. Here's a sampling of what she had to say about the climb:

I think everyone on the climb had a different motivation for being there. We had five cancer survivors and 29 who were not, but everyone has been touched by cancer in one way or another. We each find our way to honor ourselves and our loved ones, whether it’s climbing mountains or just living the life you were meant to live, and honoring each day. It’s an individual choice how you want to do that. (Read complete article, page 16.)

Interested in next year's climb? Learn more about the event and let us know you want to be among the first to get an application later this year.

Yorkers climb mountain to fight breast cancer (York Dispatch, 7/26/2011)

Cheers to two of our climbers from the Climb Against the Odds 2011 team, who appeared in The York Dispatch (Pennsylvania):

While most York County residents battled fiery temperatures during the heat wave over the past week, two Yorkers braved icy and snowy conditions while climbing a 14,179-foot California mountain as part of a breast cancer fundraiser.

Bernadette Green, 48, and her boyfriend Dr. Steven Heird, were among 34 breast cancer survivors and individuals touched by the disease who completed the Breast Cancer Fund's 12th Climb Against the Odds. (Read complete article.)

Climb photos, yes we have 'em!

If you've been following the Breast Cancer Fund's Climb Against the Odds 2011 you've probably been waiting since Wednesday for PHOTOS!

It was truly an amazing—and well documented!—climb on Mt. Shasta last week. We'll be posting lots more photos on our Flickr side in the coming days and weeks, but for now please enjoy the slideshow we shared with the climbers and their supporters Friday.

Special thanks to our amazing photographers, Cathy Ann Taylor and Sequoia Pettengell, for providing us such gorgeous images to remember this climb by.

Home again, home again

Family and friends cheered the Climb Against the Odds 2011 team off the mountain at noon today. Welcome back, climbers!

Tonight we'll honor them at a community-wide celebration dinner, but for now we'll leave you with some photos from the trailhead festivities.

Back at base camp

All the climbers are back at base camp at Hidden Valley as of 4 p.m. From the sound of it, they're in good spirits, telling stories and enjoying some well-deserved camaraderie. Great news that all are safe and sound! As Breast Cancer Fund President Jeanne Rizzo says, summiting is optional, but getting down is not.

Down here in town the climbers' families are arriving in anticipation of the team's descent off the mountain tomorrow around noon. Tonight we'll host a sign-making party to help cheer our climbers home.

It's been an incredible day all around.

Video: Top of Misery Hill

Here's another video clip from the climb this morning. This is Steve Heird and Bernadette Green at the top of the aptly named Misery Hill. Looks like a cold and windy morning!

22 on the summit

Word from the mountain: 22 climbers reached the summit today and everyone is headed back down to base camp. Wow!

Here's the comprehensive list of climbers and where they reached their personal summits on Mt. Shasta today:

Carol Anderson—Misery Hill, 13,500 feet
Hester Bennett—West Face, 10,000 feet
Shiera Brady Henderson—Summit
Damon Butler—Summit
Mary Beth Cadwell—Summit
Katie Caygill—Summit
Carly Chomer—West Face, 12,500 feet
Janet Dobson—Summit
Paul Engstrom—West Face, 12,000 feet
Leann Ferry—Summit
Elly Fike—Summit
Sarah Geyer—Summit
Betsy Gordon—Summit Plateau, 14,000 feet
Geoffrey Gray-Cornelius—Summit
Bernadette Green—Summit
Steven Heird—Summit
Diane Henry—Summit
Cadie Jessup—West Face, 10,000 feet
Jessica Lau—Summit
Ann Maechtlen—Summit
Brook McCormick—Summit Plateau, 14,000 feet
Amanda Michaud—West Face, 12,500 feet Top of the West Face, 13,100 feet
Juliet Moran—Summit
Linda Morton—Summit
Kathy Mow—West Face, 11,800 12,000 feet
Betsy Ogden—West Face, 12,500 feet
Gina Setla—Summit
Michael Sevy—Summit
Leta Sharpe—Summit
Cathy Ann Taylor—Summit
Kirsti Tcherkoyan—Summit
Linda Trenholm—West Face, 10,000 feet
Melissa (Lisa) Walthers—Summit
Erin Warren—Summit

We are so proud of each and every one of these climbers! Get safely back to base camp, team, and we can't wait to congratulate you in person tomorrow.

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Correction note, 6/30/2011: The above summits are the best information we had from the guides via radio as of 6/22/2011, but if you see an error, please contact us and we'd be happy to correct it for the record!