On Saturday, October 24, thousands of survivors and loved ones of those they survived joined together at the 5K Walk for Breast Cancer Awareness. It was a great event to celebrate the warriors who won the battle against breast cancer and honor the strong women who sadly couldn’t finish the fight.  This walk enabled me to take footsteps with my mother that I couldn’t truly take with her as she fought her own battle in 2013.

Through her own self-exam, my mother, Cristina Rosario, was able to detect a lump and follow through on steps to a diagnosis and treatment.  After having a total mastectomy she went for a second round of chemotherapy to hopefully obliterate the cancerous cells living in her body.  While these treatments eventually returned her to good health, they were harsh.  She lost a good portion of her body weight and now her heart works at a diminished capacity, approximately 25% of what is considered normal function.  Therefore, this walk was a daunting task for her to complete and she needed a wheel chair to make the whole loop.

Any family who has ever been touched by cancer or a debilitating disease knows that this is not a journey taken solo.  For my family we had support from cousins, church and co-workers.  While my mother is no longer able to work anymore, her former colleagues still support her in remaining strong and staying healthy.

At the outset of this walk my family was joined by our cousins and a former friend and co-worker of my mother’s. We started the walk at NAHS and then continued walking around the Farm Park completing 3.1 miles.   In the final mile of the walk, my mother had reserved enough of her energy to cross the finish line on her own leaving my father to push an empty wheelchair. This was the highlight of the walk for us.

This walk raised awareness in our local community and raised a combined donation of around $40,000 to the American Cancer Society. During the month of October, walks like this occurred across the nation to support victims of this relentless disease as well as survivors like my mother.