SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — The Avera Race Against Cancer is coming up in two weeks.
This year, there’s going to be a new team of runners lead by a young woman who just finished her last round of radiation.
Surrounded by her husband and two boys, Kate Patrick got to ring the bell after her final round of radiation treatment Monday.
“My word I used today was surreal, it’s a moment that you know is coming, but until you’re here, it almost doesn’t feel like today is real,” Patrick said.
Patrick was diagnosed with breast cancer last June at 37.
“Hearing the word that they were very concerned it was cancerous is something that just hits you like a brick wall, because you know a lot of people who cancer is a part of their story, but you think it’ll never be you,” Patrick said.
“Kate has a unique story, she is actually too young to be doing screening mammograms, she noticed a lump in her breast and under her arm,” Dr. Ally Higgins, a breast medical oncologist with Avera Health said.
Patrick underwent five months of chemotherapy and 25 rounds of radiation and had a double mastectomy here at the Prairie Center of Avera Health.
“Kate is an amazing woman and amazing patient, she takes very good care of herself from a health perspective and she’s been very resilient through what is a long course of treatment,” Higgins said.
Patrick says surviving breast cancer is by far the toughest thing she’s ever gone through, but she knew she had to what she had to do.
“That mind set of here we go, we are going to move forward, we are going to fight and keeping a positive mind set through it all, not always easy but unfortunately sitting in the yuck doesn’t do us any good,” she said.
Getting screened early can save your life.
“It’s very important, even if you don’t have a strong family history of breast cancer to understand that breast cancer is very common, 12% of women in their life will get breast cancer,” Higgins said.
That’s why Patrick has a message to others who might find themselves in a similar situation, surround yourself with family and friends.
“The village of people who showed up friends and family, right those are expected, but the village that showed up beyond that was something that our family will never forget,” she said.
The Avera Race Against Cancer is May 10. Patrick has a team of about 15 to 20 runners who will compete in the 5k.
