Seven women are taking a walk across southern Missouri….to raise money to fight cancer. They have limited experience in long-distance walking but lots of experience with cancer.
The seven women are celebrating the third time that Frankclay resident Carrie Pendley has beaten back cancer with a 450-mle walk from the Missouri border with Oklahoma and Kansas to Cape Girardeau. They hope to raise 20-thousand dollars for the American Cancer Society.
Pendley had ovarian cancer in 2002, had surgery and chemotherapy and the cancer went into remission. The next year she developed breast cancer. More chemo, plus radiation, and the cancer went into remission at the end of the year. Brain cancer struck Carrie Pendley in March of 2004–more radiation and more chemotherapy, and it went into remission three months ago. She says she had bad days but she had a supportive family and good friends.
She’s not the only cancer survivor on the walk. Four of the others also are survivors.
Her sister and a friend decided to celebrate her survival with the fund-raising walk. They’ve been training since mid-March by walking four miles a day. But that’s different from walking 50 or 60 miles a day. She admits they have blisters and sore legs….
But they’re raising money and spreading a message of hope. She says there is a chance although survival is a "lot of hanging in there and fighting with it."
She and the others plan to finish their walk Saturday at a park in Cape Girardeau.