Roadblocks, Potholes and Detours

Komen Race For the Cure 2015

I was honored to speak at the Race For The Cure in Bushnell Park on Saturday!


Hi Everyone and welcome to the 2015 Komen CT Race For the Cure! What an amazing, beautiful day that we have for this incredible event. Each year I am so amazed at the selfless time and energy all of you give of yourselves to help find a cure for breast cancer.. I personally thank you!

Yesterday, I celebrated 17 years of being a present cancer survivor! For 15 of those 17 years, I have been fighting Stg. 4 metastatic cancer. It is truly a miracle and I am so blessed and grateful to be here today.

When Anne Morris of Komen asked me to speak at this years' Race, I was thrilled! But believe it or not, I was almost not able to be here today. I just got out of the hospital a few days ago; I had been there for five days. I had an infection in my abdomen related to my treatments and I was really, really sick. It was a big roadblock that almost prevented me from being here today.

Looking back on the unpredictability of this past week, I began to think about all of the roadblocks and detours that I have come up against while fighting cancer. The biggest roadblock came with the words "Kimberly, you have breast cancer." Life, as I knew it, stopped right there. It didn't matter that I was 34 and had a husband and a newborn and a toddler. The path that my life had been following, and that I thought I had a lot of control over, hit a major roadblock and I now had to take a different direction. And what a direction it has been!

It has been a road filled with over 40 surgeries, or, my 'potholes' as I like to call them. My road has had major detours such as open heart surgery and repeated life threatening infections. And my husband and I have certainly paid the tolls at the toll booths on my cancer journey - enormous amouts of money for my healthcare. I used to believe that my breast cancer was a roadblock to living a full and happy life. Not anymore!

Instead, having cancer has made me the recipient of an untold number of blessings. Breast cancer has led me on an exciting journey to develop a spiritual life that has tremendous depth and meaning to me. Having breast cancer has also taught me the valuable lessons of courage, perseverance, compassion, grace and peace. And the road named cancer has led me to countless new acquaintances and deep friendships.

What type of person would I have turned out to be if I wasn't diagnosed with cancer 17 years ago? I'm not sure... But after spending so much time with my friends in pink, I have come to realize that there is 'something'... 'something' very special about these courage women, that I now have, too. I know that I am a better person because of cancer.

My breast cancer journey has taken me on a new and exciting career path, too! It led me back to school and earlier this year, I completed my certification as a Pastoral Counselor. I am now living my passion by being able to help other women overcome their challenges in life, by implementing the lessons that I have learned. Hopefully, I can make their journey down the highway of life, a little less bumpy!

So that roadblock that jumped in my path earlier this week?... well I blew right though it!

And now all of our seperate roads have led us here, to the Race For the Cure! Have a great day today and make sure that when you run or walk later, that you do it in the "pink fast lane"!!