Group climbs mountains for breast cancer attention
CALIFORNIA – California University of Pennsylvania alumnus Iris Lancaster knows first-hand that the battle against breast cancer is won the same way a mountain is climbed: one step at a time, with teamwork and the support of family and friends. Lancaster, a 1976 graduate of Cal U, was a guest speaker for Breast Cancer Awareness Month at the university.
She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992. Six years later, she found herself part of the “Climb Against the Odds” campaign of the Breast Cancer Fund, heading up Mount McKinley in Alaska. It took two years of training to prepare for the climb.
“The training for me was a challenge because I live in Michigan, which is relatively flat,” Lancaster said. “I actually came here to the Laurel Highlands to hike.”
The 12-woman team also trained in the Sierras during the winter to help prepare them for the cold and the high altitude of Mount McKinley
A bout with the flu kept her and several other members of the team from climbing to the summit of Mount McKinley, but Lancaster said that like a battle with cancer, it’s not reaching the summit that counts, it’s making the journey.
“We do climb to demonstrate our commitment to end breast cancer for the next generation. It’s a calculated risk, not like when we faced breast cancer,” Lancaster said. “I got involved to translate my fear and anger into action.”
Lancaster has since climbed Mount Fuji in Japan and reached the summit of California’s Mount Shasta. She is currently preparing to climb Washington’s Mount Rainier next year. Lancaster said The Breast Cancer Fund is still accepting applications for that climb. Each climber must raise $5,000 in donations, though she said sponsors tend to be generous with gear for the climb.
Lancaster said the Mount Fuji expedition was the largest cancer fund-raiser ever held in Japan, with 80 American and 400 Japanese climbers. She said the event brought a new awareness of current breast cancer treatment options to Japanese women, letting them know that they could have control over their own treatment plan.
“In women’s health, they were probably 20 years behind us in how they treated breast cancer. Women would go in for a biopsy and the surgeon would make the decision to take the breast off without the woman’s permission,” Lancaster said.
Lancaster said that historically, Japan has had a low incidence of breast cancer, but it has begun to rise. Lancaster said the increase is believed to be attributed to an increasingly western diet in Japan and the additional chemicals introduced into the environment through industry and other sources.
Lancaster warned the audience at Cal U that there are numerous potential cancer-causing chemicals in everyday items that they may use, noting that an estimated 85,000 chemicals are registered for use in the United States today, with more than 90 percent of them never being fully tested for their effect on human health.
Lancaster said that more than 50 percent of all breast cancer cases are not genetically related.
She said The Breast Cancer Fund has been looking into potential environmental causes of breast cancer, including exposure to various chemicals found in plastics, pesticides, fuels and cleaning products.
Lancaster said additional information about environmental causes of cancer and the chemical analysis of personal hygiene products is available at The Breast Cancer Fund Web site at www.breastcancerfund.org.
“It’s the only breast cancer organization whose primary purpose is to identify and eliminate the environmental causes of cancer,” Lancaster said.