Sep 17, 2008 6:36 pm US/Central
Walking For 3 Days, Fighting Cancer For 10 Years
(WCCO)
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The group of 18 friends are inspired by their leader, Sue LaGow, who has been fighting her own breast cancer for most of the last 10 years, and looks forward to walking all 60 miles this weekend.
CBS
One of the teams in the Susan G. Koman Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk is called Pink Pirates of the Pair of Boobies. Although the name is whimsical, their mission is serious.
The group of 18 friends are inspired by their leader, Sue LaGow, who has been fighting her own breast cancer for most of the last 10 years, and looks forward to walking all 60 miles this weekend.
"When we all get through with that opening ceremony and our opening stretches, and we start the walk," she said. "I can't even tell you what it's like, I get goose bumps just thinking about it."
LaGow can't wait for the Breast Cancer 3-Day. She's been walking a lot lately, just like the rest of her teammates, with one difference.
"I asked permission to be off chemo for a couple weeks," she said. "Which my oncologist said fine, absolutely, so I'm feeling wonderful right now."
Unfortunately, LaGow knows all about chemo, although she claims its after-effects help with fundraising.
"I have found that if I take off my wig and play the sympathy card, it really is pretty easy," she said.
She treats it with laughter, but she's been through a lot. LaGow was first diagnosed with cancer in 1998, a recurrence in 2002, and then two years ago, word that it had spread to her liver.
"She said you have to look at this like you have diabetes," she said about the conversation with her doctor. "You're always going to have it, but we can medicate and we can make your life better, so that's what we've been doing for over two years."
"People look at her and say 'I can't believe she's sick because she doesn't act like it,'" said her longtime friend, Mae Hanson. "She does everything that comes along in her life that she wants to do, and doesn't let anything hold her back."
LaGow's short term goal is to finish all 60 miles this weekend. Her long-term goal is watching her grandson, who just graduated from kindergarten, graduate from college.
"My daughter gave me a little picture of him in his little graduation hat that says 2020, and said there's your goal, you need to be at his graduation. So that's my goal," she said.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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