Brenda Running

Everyone who has been through cancer has a story to tell…this is mine.

Ten years ago, at the age of 55, I had just taken up running, hoping to lose weight, when I got the results of my yearly mammogram.  Cancer.

How could this be? I was running, I’d lost a bit of weight, I wasn’t a smoker or a drinker and I had no history of breast cancer in my family.

After a lumpectomy and then another to make sure the margins were clear, I was free of cancer.  I needed my 25 sessions of radiation and I would be back to my running and my life!  Actually, during my radiation therapy I continued to run, strapping down my breasts and off I would go. I also continued to work as a nursery teacher.  I managed to do everything in my life as well as heal and felt just fine.  After radiation, I was put on Tamoxifen for five years and never gave cancer much of a thought after that.

Ten years down the line at the age of 64, I had six marathons under my belt and was feeling really good.  Then, I received a devastating blow.  My mammogram results came back and this time last year the cancer had reoccurred in the same breast.

I was coming to the end of my marathon training that I had been working so hard  at all summer long. What could I do?  The doctor advised me that this time I should have a mastectomy and on September 8th, 2008, I had my mastectomy and eight nodes were removed from under my arm.

All was clear, and for that I thank God.

Could I still possibly run the Toronto Marathon in October?  My husband and trainer said he felt I could, and I was up for the challenge.

Six weeks after my mastectomy I ran the 42Ks, and ran it in my best time ever – just under 5 hours!  I somehow felt that the wind was behind me and lifted not only me, but my spirits as well.  It was a proud moment as I crossed the finish line with my husband, children and friends waiting there for me.

Brenda with family

Brenda with family

I am on medication for another five years and try not to give cancer any time or thought.  I am training for my eighth marathon and hope that I will do it in as good a time as I did last year.

This year I will run for a special friend who is fighting cancer and needs all the love and support to get her through her ordeal.

We will be running in the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure as we did last year and we will continue to run and support cancer research until we wipe cancer out all together.

All of us who have been through cancer, thank organizations like yours, for supporting cancer research.

Sincerely,

Brenda Baskind