Local ladies climb to rise above cancer

Sandy residents raise funds for research

By Garth Guibord

The Sandy Post, Jul 12, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009

contributed photo

Sandy resident Lori Drew, center, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in 2005. Drew's next climb will be Mount Rainier this summer.

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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.”

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