Melania Trump club

Melania Trump club

Sunday, 16 October 2011

Breast cancer survivor runs nation's Komen races to raise awareness

North Van resident Yumi White has been living with stage four breast cancer for a decade.


She has never had chemotherapy; her oncologist opted to treat her cancer with hormone therapy instead.


White didn’t question him. She’d been given a year to live and living with the debilitating effects of chemotherapy was not an option.


“[Hormone therapy] was the right decision for me because I’m still here,” says the graphic designer.


It was her husband Greg who found the lumps in her breasts. There was no other indication that she was battling an internal disease.


White promptly went to her family doctor who ordered a biopsy. In the radiologist’s office, where her cancer diagnosis was confirmed, she says she was killed mentally.


“That was the day I didn’t know where I was or who I was,” recalls White of that ominous, cold day in May.


Cancer aside, physically she was not shaken. White had always considered herself a couch potato but post-diagnosis she started running, dragon boating and doing the Grouse Grind, which is challenging enough for people in optimal health.


Two years later, she learned the cancer had metastasized into her lungs. In the same breath, White’s oncologist diagnosed with her with unrelated cervical cancer.


The cancer has continued to spread over the years, most recently to her bones, but it’s manageable with radiation and hormone therapy.


“So it is still kind of happening, but maybe [the cancer] grows very slowly in my case or the [hormone therapy] helps slow down the progression,” figures White.


An annual participant in The Weekend to End Breast Cancer, White’s team, Livestrong, has raised $250,000 over six years for breast cancer research.

The money supports ground-breaking research at the BC Cancer Agency where scientists recently found a significant connection between a natural enzyme — CA9 — and the life-threatening spread of breast cancer.


These scientists have collaborated with a medicinal chemistry group in Florence, Italy, where they developed two drugs that block the function of CA9.


Preparing the drugs for clinic-based testing will requires 18-24 months of toxicology testing before they could potentially be introduced in a phase- one clinical trial.


White was 38 years old when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She has lost two close friends who succumbed to the disease but she remains positive.


He visited a few doctors. He had a mammogram, which came back with inconclusive results. He eventually visited a surgeon in New York City who recommended surgery.


"The surgeon said, 'Why don't we just go ahead without a biopsy, because you don't want that lump there?'" Goldstein said. "I went into surgery not knowing what it was, and came out knowing it was breast cancer."


In May 1988, Goldstein underwent a modified radical mastectomy. He continued chemotherapy and radiation until January 1989 and remained on medication for the next two years.


Now, Goldstein doesn't need to take any medication, and he and his wife travel the world as Goldstein participates in nearly every Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure event in the country, as well as some internationally.

Since 1992, Goldstein has run races in 47 states, Italy, Puerto Rico and Germany.


When he dons his bib Saturday for the Alexandria Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, it will be for race No. 216.


Goldstein ran his first race at a women's only event in New York City after completing forms using gender-neutral initials and paying the entry fee with a money order instead of a personal check. He met some resistance, but he completed the 5K race.


"I had in the back of my mind that I'd do these races, but I never for one minute thought it would reach the dimensions that it subsequently developed into," Goldstein said.


"I continued running these races because the necessity for male awareness for breast cancer wasn't reduced much at all from the single race. Still, to this day, it's a valid (reason to run). Men are loath to admit they can develop any disease, let alone one that is associated with women."



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