Retired UPS executive and Magnolia resident Char Davis is the leader of a Komen Race for the Cure team, and there are four reasons why she got involved in the yearly event that raises money to find a cure for breast cancer.
Her mother, Joy, died of the disease back in the 1970s when she was only 45, Char said, adding that she and her two sisters in Spokane are also survivors of breast cancer.
Char ticks off the numbers. Her mother was sick for a year-and-a-half before the doctor she had in a small Eastern Washington town figured out she had breast cancer, her daughter said. "The survival rate then was 10 percent," said Char, who added that her mother died two years later.
Fourteen years later her sister, Cindy, was diagnosed with the disease; and she also had cervical cancer, Char remembers. Cindy was diagnosed so late that her chance of survival was 48 percent, said Char, who added that the family was told Cindy had maybe five more years to live. "And she just wouldn't adhere to that."
Cindy had a mastectomy and followed that up with a second one when it was discovered the cancer had spread to her other breast, Char said. And that seemed to take care of the problem, because three years after the initial diagnosis, Cindy went into remission. "She's doing real well now," Char said.
Then, three years ago, her sister, Lori, was diagnosed with breast cancer and had an 89-percent chance of survival. But Lori got through the surgery and is doing fine now, Char said.
Shortly after that, Char came down with breast cancer, she said. But Char caught it early and has a 98.9-percent chance of survival, she added.
Char used to give money for breast-cancer research, but when the disease hit her, Char switched modes and started volunteering her time with Komen and at the Hutch, she said.
"Your anger turns into drive that's unbelievable," Char explained. Indeed, Komen named her New Volunteer of the Year in 2007 for her involvement with the race last year, she said.
Much has changed since her mother died from breast cancer. Like Susan Komen, whom the race is named after, Char's mother had only one doctor and didn't get a second opinion. Furthermore, there wasn't the same awareness of the disease as there is now, Char said. "Nobody talked about it."
There have also been medical advances in the treatment of breast cancer since her mother was diagnosed, and the Komen organization is partly responsible.
Since the organization was launched in 1982, the Komen Race for the Cure has awarded 1,000-plus grants totaling more than $180 million for breast cancer research, according to the group's Web site. The Web site also notes there are more than 18,000 communities in 200 countries that are part of the organization.
Char has named her 42-member Komen team "The Pride of Joy" in honor of her mother, and the members come from Magnolia, Seattle, Bellingham and Spokane, she said.
"I'm not so good at asking for money," Char conceded, "but my team is." In fact, she said, The Pride of Joy team is in second place for Komen fundraising this year in Seattle.
Char said she is the first woman in her family to make it to 50, and she thinks a cure for breast cancer will be found soon. As for her own survival, Char credits the Komen Race for the Cure, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and her surgeon, Patricia L. Dawson.
"If it weren't for people like her and the Hutch, where would I be?" Char wondered. "Probably dead."
Staff reporter Russ Zabel can be reached at rzabel@nwlink.com or 461-1309.
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