Fighting For a World With Less Breast Cancer and More Birthdays

By Cindy Giles, Naperville resident

I was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer when I was 47.  People say life changes on a dime and this would be one of those times.  I am one “of those people” that believe cancer was a good thing that happened.  It taught me to get off the hamster wheel and start living my life.  Cancer taught me there are no do-over’s and no second chances in life so I chose to live my life with no regrets.  I feel so passionately about living a full and purposeful life that I started a business helping other survivors live life with no regrets.  Living a full life is possible because of the wonderful advances in medicine, thanks to the efforts of many organizations, including the American Cancer Society.  To support their efforts, I walk for Strides.

I walk for the women that are no longer here.  Women are still dying from breast cancer and I have always felt a kinship with my “sisters” by walking for the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer.  They remind me not to take my life for granted or too seriously.  I believe that their sacrifice led science to find the specific treatment that saved me.  They lost their battle in order for me to win mine. 

I walk so that people everywhere will hear the cry for the cure for breast cancer.  The awareness of hundreds to thousands of people walking for cancer in a community is not easy to hide under a rock.  Awareness may remind you to get a mammogram, or your loved one to get a mammogram.  I believe Strides and other events like this, lowers the risk of breast cancer because women are talking and walking and saving lives at the same time.

The last reason I walk for Making Strides for Breast Cancer is very selfish.  I love getting my picture taken with other survivors before the walk.  The experience to be with hundreds of women that have shared this incredible, horrific, mystifying, inspirational journey has enough energy to launch a rocket to the moon.  I think that power comes from the love of being with another “sister” and surviving this wonderful life we are so grateful to be living. 

That’s why I walk for Strides and I hope you do too!

The Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer 5K walk in Aurora is on Sunday, October 17 at Chicago Premium Outlet Mall, 1650 Premium Outlets Blvd.  Registration is at 7:30 a.m. and the walk begins at 9:00 a.m. On-line preregistration is highly recommended. To register or for more information, go to makingstridesillinois.com or call 630-879-9009.