Long walk for a cure

Published 11:00 am Saturday, July 15, 2006

Jan Webster will trek against cancer in 12 different cities this summer and fall.

Barb. Delores. Stella. Marge. Arlette. Pearl. Joan. Nancy.

These names and many others cover two sides of the barn on Jan Webster’s Madison Avenue property. Save for one, they are all islanders who have died of – or survived – breast cancer.

“Sometimes I sit on the bench and feel discouraged,” Webster said, the names emblazoned on the barn wall behind her. Then she looks at the names again, and gathers the strength to walk another mile and bake another batch of cookies to help combat the disease.

Webster is part of a team of island women who are participating in the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer “3-Day,” a series of 60-mile walks held around the country beginning in August to raise money and awareness for breast cancer.

Each walker must raise at least $2,200 to participate in the event.

Taking her efforts a giant step further, Webster also is a member of a national team that will do the walk in 12 different cities, beginning in Boston on Aug. 4.

Her fellow walkers hail from Illinois, New York, Virginia and Michigan. They have been walking since last November. Webster joined them last month.

This means Webster must raise $26,400 and walk 720 miles in 12 weeks. So far, she has about $14,000, which covers the events in Boston, Detroit, the Twin Cities, Seattle, Kansas City, Chicago and Philadelphia. She needs the additional funds – and many air miles – to fulfill her goal.

Because walkers must cover all their expenses, from travel to hotels to meals, the challenge is even more daunting.

Since March, Webster has campaigned tirelessly to spread the word about the 3-Day walks. To raise money, she has sold bags of her famous chocolate chip cookies aboard ferries, held a yard sale and sent scores of emails and letters.

The number of American women and men who will lose their lives to breast cancer this year alone is 40,000, Walker told supporters in a recent correspondence. Every three minutes a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer.

“The good news is that in the United States today, there are more than two million breast cancer survivors,” she wrote. “This year at a memorial service of a friend, I learned of an event called the Breast Cancer 3-Day… I will be walking in the Seattle Fundraiser but that didn’t feel like enough.”

Webster was inspired to walk by the memory of her friends Leonard Hayashida and Susan Wing, both of whom died of cancer earlier this year.

She also has family members who died of the disease.

“Four of my friends were diagnosed with breast cancer in the last five months,” she said. “It woke me up that other people go through hard times. When I found out about the team of five walking all 12 cities, I thought this could be a really amazing and healing journey for me.”

Webster has had her share of life problems, not the least of which were medical in nature.

In 2004, she weighed 308 pounds; she underwent lap band surgery but major complications ensued. After 11 surgeries over November and December 2005, and five months of bed rest, she too was a survivor.

Walking and training with Charissa Hines of Island Fitness helped her heal and gain strength, emotionally and physically.

Meeting breast cancer survivors further empowered her, she said, to the point where “I just don’t feel anything can stop me. Angels will carry me through this.”

Webster’s band of angels includes her family and friends.

Son Blake, 14, raised $300 for the cure with his “Change 4 Cancer” campaign at Woodward Middle School last term. The then-eighth-grader collected money from fellow students.

His friend Maddie Hines, 13, created a “My Space” internet page – “3dayhopeangel” – with a pink breast cancer awareness bear donated by a Hallmark store. Visitors can send a message to the bear, which will go on every walk.

“This is for children who have lost a mother to breast cancer or have a mom who is battling the disease,” Maddie said. “They could have her as a companion. She could give them hope and faith.”

Spray painting a tribute on the barn is another means of healing.

After Susan Wing died of breast cancer on May 26, Webster invited her 8-year-old son Ryder to pick up a can of paint and write something. He boldly printed: “My Loving Mom.”

From that effort quietly sprung a memorial wall and a survivor wall, which, after two weeks, were covered with names in various hues.

Many of the scribes first saw the barn when they came for Webster’s yard sale. Others dropped by unannounced afterward, having heard of the barn via word of mouth.

In front of the barn sits a pink bench donated by the Hayashida family for the yard sale. Webster kept it as a memorial. Now the pastoral setting is a sanctuary for remembrances and tears. On the ground is a pail filled with cans of paint that anyone can use for their own tribute. Donations are welcome, too.

“It’s really touching to see people break down in emotion and share their stories of the disease,” Webster said. “Whenever they do that, you just listen. They just need to tell their story. Everyone is so tender and emotional about that.”

Webster will continue to supply the spray paint. If need be, she said, “we’ll paint another wall.”

A doula and lactation consultant, Webster will resume her professional duties in December. Her moms, some of whom have breast cancer, are among her supporters.

Webster is grateful to the people of Bainbridge for their help.

“They are all supporting me, helping me get through,” she said. “I don’t think I chose this. It chose me. It was an angel. I just have angels all over the island.”

*************

Walk the walk

Donation jars to help Jan Webster reach her Breast Cancer 3-Day goal are set up at Bainbridge Spine Center, New Motion Physical Therapy, in Safeway near the videos, at Bay Hay and Feed and at San Carlos Restaurant. Make checks payable to “Breast Cancer 3-Day” or bring them to Webster’s barn, located at 8808 Madison behind the Baptist church. To donate online see www.the3day.org/seattle06/janwebster.

San Carlos Restaurant will host a send-off fund-raiser for Webster from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Aug. 2. A portion of the dinner and drink proceeds will go to her walk. Afterward, friends and well-wishers are invited to accompany Webster to the ferry terminal as she heads for her first walk in Boston.