Local ladies climb to rise above cancer
Sandy residents raise funds for research
contributed photo
Sandy resident Lori Drew, center, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in 2005. Drew's next climb will be Mount Rainier this summer.
One year ago this August, Troutdale resident Sandi Healey was diagnosed with breast cancer. Now, almost to the day of the anniversary, Healey, 39, and her friend and personal trainer, Lori Drew, 47, of Sandy will climb to the summit of Mount Rainier with the hope that someday others won’t have to go through what Healey did.
“I think, as a lot of people do, (we're) really kind of behind the times as far as treatment goes for breast cancer,” said Healey. “I’m very interested in having them progress in treatment and prevention strategies.”
Their climb is one of 13 organized by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, based in Seattle, to raise money to fight breast cancer – climbs that also include Mount Hood, Mount Elbrus in Russia and Mount Adams in Washington. Called the Climb to Fight Breast Cancer, the events are expected to raise more than $500,000.
This will be Healey’s first climb with the organization but the second for Drew. In 2005, Drew and her sister climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania in honor of their grandmother, who died of breast cancer in 2004.
“It’s just incredible to see how hard it was,” Drew said of her grandmother’s illness. “What you go through with chemo (therapy and) with mastectomies. I watched my grandmother go through chemo – if they can do that, I can do this.”
Drew’s and Healey’s climb of 14,411-foot Mount Rainier will be led by guides from Alpine Ascents International and will include other climbers making the journey for similar reasons. Many of these individuals will take on the challenge despite little or no experience in the technical aspects of mountain climbing.
“These people who do these climbs are not mountain climbers,” Drew said. “They’re just normal people who decided they would climb this mountain. It’s a huge ordeal.”
Healey and Drew already have performed training climbs, including reaching the 10,000-foot mark of Mount Rainier. But in August when the women try to reach the summit, the climb will require skills such as glacier travel in crampons (spiked boots), rope techniques, crevasse rescue, route finding and self-arrest (regaining control after sliding). Healey noted that she will rely on Drew to help get her through the difficult spots.
“She’s my motivator for this,” Healey said. “It’s going to be very challenging. I’m a scared-of-heights kind of person.”
Another Sandy resident, Priscilla Jester, will climb Mount Baker between Friday, July 13, and Sunday, July 15, in honor of her sister who died of breast cancer and many of her friends and colleagues who survived. Jester, who works as a public health nurse for Multnomah County, raised money for a previous climb of Mount Adams and had a unique experience when she reached the top.
“We got to the top of Mount Adams, which is pretty broad and flat, (and) we had a banner out and were taking pictures when a guy came up and asked us what we were doing,” Jester said. “When we told him, he said his wife was undergoing chemo and asked how he could donate.”
Drew similarly plans to take a prayer flag with the names of a lot of donors’ friends and family on it when she climbs Mount Rainier. Reaching the summit to honor people who have been touched by breast cancer is an emotional moment, and also a chance to reflect on the disease and what it means.
“My diagnosis has kicked me in the tail,” Healey said. “You only live once; you’ve got to try things.”
For more information or to help support a climber, visit www.fhcrc.org/climb.
Sandy Post intern Callie Vandewiele contributed to this report.