Breast Cancer Awareness Month Tribute

Last year I had the pleasure of working with the Breast Cancer Fund and meeting a woman by the name of Sherry Miller. Sherry joined BCF's Climb Against the Odds event to raise money to eliminate the environmental causes of cancer. She was 50, undergoing her 5th round of chemotherapy and was training to climb a mountain - a feat that required her to wake up at midnight and climb for a straight twelve hours.

Because she was in Reno it was months before I met her and by the time I did I had built her up into this huge supernatural character. I was surprised that she was so soft-spoken and that she wasn't the 6-foot giant I had envisioned. This was Sherry's second year of climbing and in her first year the summit had eluded her. She was going for it in a huge way.

On July 10, 2006 to the cheers of her rope team, Sherry stood on Mt. Shasta's 14,000 ft. summit and cried out, “I am alive, I am well and I am at one with the mountain!”

When they relayed the message down to us it was amazing. Perfect strangers were embracing in celebration of their friends' successes.

Sherry was taken from us in April 2007. She was one of the Breast Cancer Fund's most active advocates and truly believed (even in her last days) that prevention is possible. Sherry always wanted women to question the chemicals in our environment. This Breast Cancer Awareness Month I want to remember Sherry and the work that she continues to inspire with the Breast Cancer Fund.

*To donate to BCF, click on my name and you'll be directed to the Breast Cancer Fund's donation page. Thanks for your support!