Michelle Pierce celebrated her one-year anniversary of being a cancer survivor by running at the annual Run for the Cure event.
Doctors diagnosed Pierce with breast cancer last year in October. The 29-year-old said when she heard the news she couldn’t believe it.
“It wasn’t something that I thought would ever happen to me,” Pierce said. “It was the scariest thing I’ve ever had to go through with my family. It was the worst experience of my life. I’m here now a year later and I’m about to run five kilometres. Everyone wants to see this disease gone.”
Pierce had surgeries to remove the tumors and a few weeks later started chemotherapy followed by radiation treatment. She said she now has to take a drug for the next five years.
Pierce joined close to a thousand people at the 20th annual CIBC Run for the Cure for Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation on Sunday. Participant had the choice of run a 1km run around the Fort William Stadium track or a 5km route.
Although it was her first run in Thunder Bay, Pierce has participated at the run for about 10 years in honour of her aunt who also had breast cancer. This year she wanted to run not only for her aunt but for herself as well.
“(The Run for the Cure) is so unbelievable,” she said. “To be here today and be here with my friends and my family is pretty unbelievable and seeing all the other survivors gives me a lot of hope. I hope to be doing this in 20 years. You will get through this. There is another side to it. There is hope. Just keep on keeping on.”
Bonnie Tittaferrante, direct of the run, said they nearly reached their goal of $133,000. With the early morning temperature dropping below freezing, Tittaferrante said participants needed to keep moving and remind themselves to appreciate the survivors who were able to come to the event.
“The Run for the Cure is all about breast cancer so our daughters and our granddaughters won’t have to experience what a lot of our survivors had to experience,” Tittaferrante said. “For some reason Thunder Bay always has an awesome turnout. We’re above stats this year compared to other sites across Canada.”
