TESTIMONIALS

Sarah O'Connor, Harrisburg, VA
Breast cancer survivor and Climb for Hope Sherpa

I had breast cancer in 1994 for the first time, then again in 1998, so I am very aware of the remarkable strides that have been made recently in breast cancer treatment and prevention. I know so many women now who are surviving and thriving after one (or more) incidents of breast cancer. Unfortunately, I also have known women who died from this disease, so we cannot rest in seeking treatments, especially for women with advanced cases.

Finding new treatments is extremely costly, and researchers are often in the position of not only trying to do their work but also of having to find funding for that work. Climb for Hope is shouldering some of that burden. It is more than a fundraising organization, however. It has
become a community, a merry band, as my sister put it, of people working
shoulder-to-shoulder to do a job worth doing.

An essay I read recently by Annie Dillard advised young writers, "Dedicate (donate, give all) your life to something larger than yourself, to the largest thing you can: to God, to relieving suffering, to contributing to knowledge, to adding to literature, or something else. Happiness lies this way, and it beats pleasure hollow." Good advice for all of us. This is such a cause. Let's do it!

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Dr. Leisha Emens, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
Lead breast cancer vaccine researcher and inaugural Climb for Hope climber

"I am dedicated to this cause because my mother had breast cancer. She was diagnosed when I was 10, and died from the disease when I was 15. I know firsthand how the disease and its treatment affects patients and their families.

I am actively involved in treating women (and men) with all stages of breast cancer, and know the strengths and limitations of currently available treatments. After college, 10 years of medical school and graduate school, 3 years of internship and residency, and 3 years of subspecialty training in oncology, I am still focused on what I set out to do 20 years ago.

My work aims to develop strategies for engaging the patient's immune system to fight cancer. I am part of a group that leads the world in researching tumor immunotherapy, and developing tumor vaccines, and am the member of the group that is focused on breast cancer. No breast cancer therapy we have currently works in that way, so when we are successful it will be a critical addition to what we have to offer patients."

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Joyce Mulvihill, New Brunswick, Canada
Donor to inaugural Climb for Hope

"My friend Chris has just had a double mastectomy and is undergoing chemo now. It would be wonderful if you would take her name with you on your climb. I willl be praying for your safety and that of your team."

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Rachel Victoria Mills, Washington, NC
Climb for Hope Sherpa

"I thought it would be a perfect Thanksgiving gift to honor the women whose lives had made ours possible, who have supported us, climbed our climbs with us, cheered us along the way, and provided us with the resources to get us where we are as good human beings.

So my gift is made in honor of my mother, my aunts, my sisters, cousins and friends who have, at times when I have had cliffs too steep even to imagine overcoming, nudged, cajoled, quietly supported, and actively provided me with the strength and encouragement to keep going (my grandmother's favorite phrase). I send with Laura each name up that Ecuadorian height to celebrate so many women's bravery and hope."