Race celebrates surviving

By Jennifer Palmberg
The Collegian

Happy and hopeful faces filled the yard outside of the Satellite Student Union Saturday as thousands of people from all over the Valley gathered to honor those affected by breast cancer.

Race for the Cure is an annual event designed to raise awareness about breast cancer and provide funds for research and education. The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Center is the world’s largest distributor of cancer information and is a leader in medical research. The foundation is funded through yearly donations and funds raised from entry fees and donations made at Race for the Cure.

Breast cancer can be a devastating disease that, if not discovered in time, can spread through one’s body and cause months or years of painful deterioration leading to a person’s death. But you would have never guessed that from the proud and happy faces of about 200 survivors honored at the ceremony.

“I had tears streaming down my face,” said former Fresno State part-time linguistics and education professor Carole Urzua. “I was really moved by the whole thing.”

Urzua sat tenderly on the back steps of the platform where she had been honored as a survivor only moments before. Her pink hat and large sunglasses hid most of her smiling face as she rested clutching her pink rose in one hand and tucking her soft white hair behind her ear with the other.

Urzua was first diagnosed with cancer 22 years ago at the age of 39.

“I had a lot of pain under my right arm and my lymph nodes there were swollen,” she said. “I reached under my arm to rub them and when I moved my hand to the left that’s when I felt the lump.”

She was diagnosed with Metastatic cancer, which is when the cancer cells have spread from the primary cancer to other parts of the body. Urzua’s cancer had spread to her lungs, liver and seven vertebrae.

“The cancer ate away my vertebrae and they collapsed,” she said, still smiling. “That’s why I’m sitting here instead of walking around. I’m really sick and it hurts a bit.”

Urzua has been through four chemo therapy treatments since she found out about her cancer.

“Before treatment I had long, beautiful platinum blonde hair going past my shoulders,” she said. “I was absolutely devastated when it all fell out. But you know, the only time I have ever cried was the first time my doctor told me I had cancer. I’ve never cried since.”

Urzua said she finds strength from her support group, her church and especially her husband.

“My husband has been to every doctor’s meeting and every chemo treatment,” she said. “Sometimes during chemo treatments I visualize him going into my body, scooping up the cancer cells and riding an escalator down to a furnace where he burns them all. It helps me stay quiet during treatment and it helps me feel better overall.”

Urzua was working as a teacher in Oregon when she first learned about her illness. She would get so tired from her treatment during the day she would bring a mat to class and have her assistant stand guard at the door while she slept on the floor through lunch hour.

Later Urzua and her husband moved to Fresno and she worked at Fresno State part time around her treatments from 1994 to 2002.

“I really like it up here,” she said. “It’s a great area and this is a great school.”

Urzua learned Thursday the cancer had spread again to another part of her body and that she would have to go back in for more chemo next week.

“What I have is an illness in my body that will never go away,” she said, her smile fading a little for the first time. “I just hope I make it long enough to see the day when they find a cure.”

Urzua wasn’t the only one hoping for a cure.

“My aunt Rosie died two years ago from breast cancer,” eight-year-old Benjamin Reyner said. “I wish they had found the cure for her. And I hope they do find the cure to save others.”

Reyner came to the event with his mother and younger sister. He and his sister sat waiting for the kid’s races to start near the end of the event.

“I’m running for aunt Rosie,” Reyner said. “I know she would want me to and would be proud of me and my sister.”

“I just can’t say enough how important it is to give yourself monthly breast exams,” said Lucinda Reyner, Benjamin’s mother. “My sister, Rosaline, might still be alive had she caught the cancer sooner. Rosie was only 27 when it killed her.”

Lucinda said coming to the event was about healing and celebrating the advancements being made in breast cancer research and those who are making the advancements possible.

“It’s important to get the word out and make people aware of the disease,” she said. “But today isn’t just about the information, it’s about celebrating those who are fighting against it and coming out on top.

“Today is a happy day for me and my family because we know we’re honoring Rosie by supporting others,” Lucinda said. “And all the people here today are heroes for being strong and supporting one another. Just look at all that pink,” she said gazing around at the pink shirts, hats, tablecloths and balloons.

“You know, I’ve even seen people here who have spray-painted their dogs pink or put pink bandanas around their neck and walked them during the event,” she said. “These people are amazing.”

In 2005, about 211,240 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed in women in the United States, according to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Center Web site. Early detection significantly increases your chances of surviving. For more information visit www.komen.org.

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