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‘I keep on walking’: Breast cancer victims, survivors and family push forward on 3-day trek

Archer Steed (right), 2, offers a Gerbera daisy to walker Toni Van Valkenburg during the Susan G. Komen 3-Day on Saturday at Bonita Cove on Mission Bay in San Diego. Dramm and Echter, a flower farm in Encinitas, donated 10,000 Gerbera stems to the walk.
(Eduardo Contreras/U-T)
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More than 2,200 people are participating in Susan G. Komen San Diego’s 3-Day walk this year, and most of them are moving their feet as an act of remembrance.

They’re making the 60-mile trek, which ended Sunday afternoon, to remember a mother, a sister, maybe even a husband or brother, who lost a life to breast cancer, a disease that the American Cancer Society predicts will kill 41,000 people this year. Others are walking to share their own memories of a cancer diagnosis survived, a victory to be celebrated during the work of raising millions to support cancer research.

But a few like Gwynne Martin of Mechanicsburg, Pa., walked during their cancer fight.

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On Saturday at lunchtime, at the midpoint of the pilgrimage, she sat on the grass at Bonita Cove, embedded in a circle of friends and family members 29 strong and calling themselves “Gwynne’s Friends.” They came to San Diego from five states, working to raise more than $75,000 toward cancer research.

With a diagnosis of metastatic triple-negative breast cancer that has recently spread to her liver, some might wonder why Martin wasn’t home in bed rather than out in the sun, thousands of miles from home, walking mile after mile.

Though she said it can be tough to see the memorials that many of her fellow walkers carry in tribute to loved ones who have died from breast cancer, Martin said she finds comfort in doing as much as she can, as long as she can, even while undergoing chemotherapy.

“I’m in pain all of the time, but I take Motrin, and I keep on walking,” Martin said.

“There are two options,” added her husband, Paul Martin. “You keep pushing forward or you give up. The second one’s not a great alternative, so you keep pushing.”

It’s a sentiment that many on this trail express. Even those such as Anne Burns of Serra Mesa, who has not been diagnosed with breast cancer, say they know they need to be just as relentless as the disease they hope their fundraising efforts will someday cure. Burns said she lost her grandmother and many other family members to breast cancer and is determined to do what she can to push back.

“It’s all for the future. I don’t want my nieces to have to watch people die from breast cancer,” Burns said.

On Sunday, Komen announced that this year’s 3-Day raised more than $6.5 million, slightly less than the $7.9 million brought in last year but more than the $5.9 million collected in 2015. Over the past 14 years, Komen’s 3-Day walks, which are occurring in seven American cities this year, have gathered more than $820 million for breast cancer research and support of those struggling with the disease.

The walk is not just about raising money. The experience of being together for 72 hours and staying in a special camp after the walking is done for the day is an equally important reason why the event draws thousands year after year.

Sandy Schuler of Sacramento, who walked for her first time in San Diego this year, said she battled breast cancer in 2003. Hearing the stories of so many others who went through what she went through, she said, has been its own kind of therapy.

“I’m a little more of an introvert, and hearing so many stories makes me want to open up about things that I’ve had a tendency to keep in,” Schuler said.

Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled the last name of Anne Burns. We apologize.

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paul.sisson@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1850

Twitter: @paulsisson

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