'Race for the Cure' has special meaning for cancer survivor

Intermountain Catholic

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Karen Brown (left), and Nancy Hendrickson, a dental patient and team member on the Mangelson team, finish the race for all women who have had breast cancer, as well as raise funds for a cure.

SALT LAKE CITY — Karen Brown has participated in Race for the Cure for the past 10 years, which always falls on the Saturday before Mother’s Day. This year Race for the Cure was held May 9, and Brown had two teams.

Brown has been a dental hygienist for 24 years, and works for Dr. Mark Mangelson. She is a member of Saint Thomas More Parish. Brown started participating in the race 10 years ago when her best friend from high school was diagnosed with breast cancer.

"My friend’s birthday is in the month of May, and I could never figure out what to get her," said Brown. "So I thought for the woman who has basically everything, I can do this for her and for other women as well. That first year was 1999. That year Dr. Mangelson decided to race with me. Then every year thereafter, the office has put together a team.

"A few years ago we had another hygienist who had breast cancer," said Brown. "So we raced for her, but she no longer works with us. But this year the staff raced for me.

"My husband, Stan, also decided to put together a team consisting of our friends and family and called it "Team Enough Already," said Brown. "So we merged the two together. In the Mangelson team there were 29 members, and with Enough Already there were 28. I think we raised more than $2,000. We had online registration, and through the Komen website, you could send out e-mails to people and ask for donations. That is how it progressed.

"We had a barbecue to celebrate that I was finished with my treatments," said Brown. "I was diagnosed last July with a cancerous lump in my left breast. I had a lumpectomy and radiation. Then in December, I was diagnosed with a lump in my right breast. I found out Dec. 29, and then during the first week of January, I had surgery again. Then I had to have it again later in January to get a better margin, and then started my radiation treatments. So both times I had a lumpectomy or wide excisions and radiation treatments."

Brown said she was very fortunate to have caught it early through mammography screenings. She has her annual mammography during her birthday month each year.

"I was just very fortunate to have found them early," said Brown. "I am definitely an advocate for mammographies. I ask all my patients if they have had their mammogram each year.

"The particular type of cancer I had does not respond to chemotherapy," said Brown. "So I had the lesser of the two evils.

"The hardest part of having cancer is that I have never abused drugs or alcohol," said Brown. "I have lived a healthy lifestyle. But you just never know why it happens to you.

"That is one of the things my sister said. Of all the three of us girls in our family, I have had the healthiest lifestyle, and yet I am the one who has had breast cancer twice and malignant melanoma," said Brown. "I remember going to get my blessing before I had surgery with Jesuit Father Paul McCarthey, parochial vicar at Saint Thomas More Parish, and I was crying. It was just he and I in the sanctuary.

"Fr. McCarthey asked me if I was okay," said Brown. "I told him I was so mad at God. He said don’t be mad at God, be mad at your parents. They are the ones who gave you these genes. You know, that kind of settled things for me. I realized that I am really lucky, and it was not as bad as it could have been. I guess in a spiritual sense, you always have to look at something in a positive light. When you have something negative in your life, you have to find something positive and make lemonade out of lemons.

"The first time it was hard just dealing with being told I had breast cancer," said Brown. "The second time, it was, my gosh, again? So I have been trying to come to terms with it and accept it for what it is. There is no history of breast cancer in my family.

"Since I have had breast cancer twice in the last year, I try not to take things for granted as much," said Brown. "I am trying to reduce some of the stresses in my life. I have not yet dumped them all, but one-by-one I am eliminating them.

"One thing that has truly amazed me is people really care about people," said Brown. "The support that I have had has been pretty incredible. That was certainly indicative with the Race for the Cure teams. There were my husband’s work mates, there were friends, my best friend and her husband came from Los Angeles, Calif., and family. People really care about other people. When you think people don’t care about you, they really do.

"Receiving that love and support really helped," said Brown. "Everybody I know said they pray for me, and I say I need all the prayers I can get. Even my LDS patients know I am Catholic and ask me if they can put me on their prayer list at the LDS Temple? I am certainly not going to say no. I know the parish prays for me. I have a girlfriend in Denver and I am on her prayer list. I think it all helps.

"My whole family is Catholic, and I have an aunt who lives in Santa Cruz, Calif., near the beach," said Brown. "She has some friends who are priests and they come there for a weekend retreat. They celebrated a Mass for me at her house, and I think it makes a big difference. That gives me hope.

"My Irish Setter, Merlot, knew she could not jump on me the way she normally does," said Brown. "She gives me so much unconditional love. Even the people at doggy day care were kind. They did not even charge us for the day of my surgery. People just care."