Opting out of the pink boa

I participated in the Avon Breast Cancer Walk for five years in a row.  We built a team called the Reston Rack Pack and each year  our team varied between three members up to twelve members one year. Every year each participant had to raise $1800 to be eligible to walk.  Our team always raised above the minimum via solicitation and local community fundraisers.  The money went towards breast cancer research, providing mammograms for women in underserved communities and funding local facilities that work with breast cancer patients.  

We walked 26 miles on the first day of the event and 13 miles on the second day.  It was a lot of walking.  We were enthusiastic, then exhausted, and then delirious, especially the first day.  By the second day, if  our leg muscles were still working and our blisters weren’t too debilitating,  the 13 miles felt almost easy after the prior 26 miles.

The organizers of the walk did their best to encourage the walkers.  There were cheerleaders throughout the whole route, bikers dressed as clowns following us  and firefighters in pink standing outside of the firehouse.  There was one guy who showed up every year in a cow suit handing out candy and many neighborhood kids gave out lemonade as we walked by their homes.  

The whole weekend was a celebration of the breast cancer warriors.  The motto was if a patient can endure chemotherapy and all the pain from the illness, we could manage to walk 39 miles. Breast cancer patients walked and survivors walked and many family members who had lost loved ones walked.  It was a celebration, but there were also many tears for those who had lost the battle, those who were struggling and fighting and those who were so grateful to be healing.

I know a woman who is a newly diagnosed breast cancer patient.  She has called it her “second full time job” between all of the appointments, the phone calls and the immense amount of paperwork, particularly with insurance companies.   She is tired and scared and overwhelmed.  She told me “I don’t feel like being a pink cheerleader at this moment while I’m just trying to keep it all going”.  She talked about all of the publicity that breast cancer has received like breast cancer awareness month including football players wearing pink.  She acknowledged how helpful awareness and funding can be for research towards better treatments which, hopefully, will benefit her and many others.  She said she doesn’t feel or want to be perky all of the time about her illness, but maybe that will come when she is on the other side of it.

Her sentiments resonated with me.  I understand wanting to undergo this privately amongst a close circle of family and friends and not wanting to be the poster child for your illness.  Not everyone wants to  sport the pink boa which is completely understandable.   

There are all kinds of people and all kinds of patients.  I am glad there are opportunities to celebrate five years cancer free  if that is so desired, but I really have a new appreciation for the pressure some feel to be upbeat and jolly every day when all they want to do is hunker down and get well. 

Reston Rack Pack 2012