Walking 60 miles in their shoes
Walking 60 miles in their shoes
Therapist walks for cure for family
| CAPTION: Jane Nordberg/Daily Mining Gazette Sharon Fisher’s quads and glutes get a workout on the leg extension machine at the Keweenaw Memorial Fitness Center in Houghton. Fisher, a KMMC occupational therapist, has bumped up her fitness routine in training for a 60-mile walk to benefit breast cancer research. |
By JANE NORDBERG, DMG Writer
LAURIUM — As a medical professional, Sharon Fisher has always had an awareness of breast cancer and its effects on her patients.
But until now, it hasn’t been personal.
Fisher, a certified occupational therapist with Keweenaw Memorial Medical Center, has worked with numerous cancer patients, particularly those with lymphadena, a condition that causes swelling of the arm following a mastectomy or other invasive surgery near the lymph nodes.
Since December, however, when both her sister, Karen, and her cousin, Shelia, were diagnosed with breast cancer, she decided she could no longer be a bystander.
“It always happened to somebody else, and while I always had empathy for them and treated them well, to have my sister and my cousin be diagnosed, all of a sudden it hits very close to home,” she said.
Fisher and her three sisters, Terry, Mary and Karen, are raising funds through the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation three-day walk in downstate Michigan Aug. 11-13.
The walk begins at Stony Creek Metropark in Macomb County’s Shelby Township, and ends 60 miles later at Metro Beach Metropark in Harrison Township.
“My dad passed away in March, and while we were all together at his funeral, we started talking about how it would be a good way to raise money for cancer research while giving us a chance to all be together,” Fisher said.
More than 1,700 walkers and 400 volunteers raised nearly $5 million last July after taking a winding route from Meadow Brook Music Festival in downstate Rochester Hills to the State Fairgrounds in Detroit. Similar events are held nationwide over the same weekend.
During the event, participants walk an average of 20 miles a day and are provided meals, snacks, beverages and places to camp at night. This year, walkers must raise $2,200 each in order to participate, a $100 increase from last year.
Karen became the point person for the sisters’ participation in the event, going to orientation and dispersing information to the rest of the clan. She has also raised $1,526 towards the amount needed, with about a month to go before the event. Sharon, meanwhile, said she found the fundraising aspect a little daunting.
“They ask you to send out letters to friends and family and I found that pretty hard,” she said, adding that she felt funny about asking some acquaintances for money, although the letter worked.
“About some of the people farther down the list, I thought ‘I’m not going to hear from these people at all,’ and then I got three donations, two of which I didn’t expect,” she said. “The support has been pretty good so far.”
Besides funds, each sister will bring her own unique personality to the walk, Fisher said.
Terry, a nurse, brings a lot of medical knowledge to the event, while Sharon described herself as the “cheerleader of the group who stirs the pot the most.”
Mary has the most experience camping of the four sisters, while Karen is just the opposite.
“It will be interesting to see her in a tent with port-a-potties, no hotels and no towel service,” Fisher said.
Despite a personal and professional belief in staying healthy and active, Fisher knows the walk will test her physical endurance and has begun a more vigorous training schedule.
“I’ve been walking anywhere from an hour to an an hour and a half each day,” said Fisher, amounting to about four to seven miles. On the weekends, she walks even farther.
“I’ve also been doing some weightlifting,” she said, illustrating her point by grunting during a strenuous workout on the leg extension machine last week at the KMMC fitness center in Houghton.
According to the Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, this year more than 200,000 women and men will be diagnosed with breast cancer and more than 40,000 will lose their lives to the disease.
The money raised by the three-day walk goes toward breast cancer research, treatment, prevention and education. To donate to Fisher’s walk or to learn more about the event, go to www.the3day.org/Michigan06/sharonfisher.
Jane Nordberg can be reached at jnordberg@mininggazette.com
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