Cowgirls walk for cancer cure

Three women with pink sparkly cowboy hats emerged from the crowd heading north toward the Candy Dance in Genoa, along Foothill Road on Sept. 23.

The trio had a larger purpose than the estimated 40,000 shoppers who arrived that weekend to buy arts, crafts and food. Donna Bartels, 56, who lives off Foothill Road, her sister Diane Watson, 55, of Lodi, Calif., and Diane's best friend, Peggy Schultz, 65, also of Lodi, met for one of several training sessions for the 60-mile Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Race for the Cure on Nov. 11-13 in San Diego, Calif.

"We started at 7 a.m.," said Bartels, hardly breathless for the 6.8 miles they had just trekked. "We were freezing cold, but now it's heating up."

The three-day walk in San Diego is Bartels' first, but Schultz' fourth and Watson's fifth.

"This is my last," said Schultz, who is a breast cancer survivor. "I say it's my last because I am the oldest."

The three will meet up in San Diego with two others who are traveling across the country to participate in the walk.

"The training, the 60 miles, all of the time we've walked ..." said Schultz.

"... We've walked the distance to Disneyland and back easily," said Watson, finishing her sentence. "We've gone through lots of tennis shoes, lost toenails, but it was worth it."

Besides the three women, two other walkers are on their team, Bartels' older sister Peggy Mellinger, 59, of Columbus, Ohio, and her friend, Carole Simmons, 59, of Tallahassee, Fla.

"These people who have had radiation and gone through chemotherapy - the way I look at it, if they can do it, I can do it," said Bartels, who was on the food crew for the walk two years ago. "I've walked all my life. I thought, this was something I can really do."

"We walk for the ones who can't - for aunts, friends, sisters, mothers," said Watson.

Between all five women, every one of them has lost family members to cancer. Bartels had two special "Dorothys" in her life. Her mother, Dorothy Eleanor DeVault lost her battle to cancer 13 years ago, and her aunt, Dorothy E. DeVault, is a two-time breast cancer survivor, winning her fight first in 1991 and again in 2003.

"It affects people who are so healthy, eat good and never smoke," said Bartels. "It is mostly women who are doing this walk, but there are men who are survivors."

By the end of this year, more than one million people are expected to have participated in the Komen Race for the Cure - with walks in almost every state in the U.S. as well as in Frankfurt, Rome and San Juan.

In 1983, Nancy Brinker created the first Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Race for the Cure in Dallas, Texas, with 800 participants.

In addition to raising funds, the Komen Race for the Cure Series is committed to educating the public about early detection, the strongest method of surviving this life-threatening disease. The five-year survival rate is 95 percent when the disease is discovered while still confined to the breast, according to the Web site www.komen.org

The Komen Race for the Cure Series helps raise awareness of the importance of a positive breast health program - annual mammography beginning at age 40, clinical breast exams at least every three years beginning at age 20 and annually at age 40, and monthly breast self-examinations for all women beginning by age 20.

Each walker must raise $2,200 by Nov. 1 before they can participate.

"There are 6,000 registered walkers (in the San Diego walk) so far," said Bartels. "You can be registered, but if you don't meet your quota, you can't walk."

Bartels, who has lived in the area since the 1970s, began raising her funds in January, through donations from her co-workers at Carson Valley Veterinary Hospital, neighbors and others outside of the Valley.

To date, her team has raised $15,500.

Because they have met their quota, Bartels plans to help other area walkers Tammy Miller of South Lake Tahoe, Gardnerville resident Pam Sturlin and Sturlin's daughter Shanin Zmija of San Diego.

After their nearly 14-mile training walk on Sept. 23, 6.8 miles both ways, Bartels, Schultz and Watson said they were planning on doing the same walk the following day.

"We're walking 20 miles a day for three days," said Bartels. "You have to get your endurance up."

Since April, the five women have been doing training walks every other weekend - in Truckee, Lodi and Tahoe in California, in Nevada, Ohio and in Florida.

"We're all going to hook up in San Diego," said Watson.

Details:

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

For more information, visit www.nbcam.com.

To make a donation, visit these Web sites:

n To Tammy Miller - www.the3day.org/SanDiego06/tammymiller/

n To Pam Sturlin - www.the3day.org/SanDiego06/pamsturlin/

n To Shanin Zmija - www.the3day.org/SanDiego06/shanin/

n To Donna Bartels - www.the3day.org/SanDiego06/donnabartels/