Runner adds one more name to her list of breast cancer survivors -- her own

For more years than she can remember, Sheri Boggs would take a few minutes to do what so many girls and women do before the Alaska Run for Women, the annual race that raises money for the fight against breast cancer.

She would write down the names of friends and relatives who are survivors of the disease – "I'm grateful all of them are survivors," she said – on a piece of paper and pin it to the back of her shirt.

Boggs will do the same thing again this year. Only this time, she can add her own name to her list.

The 54-year-old Eagle River woman for the first time will be part of the Run for Women's pink-cap brigade. She'll put on one of the pink ballcaps given to women who have or had breast cancer, and she'll run the familiar course with a new perspective.

"It will be very different this year," Boggs said. "It will be very special this year."

[How to sign up for the Alaska Run for Women]

In late September, Boggs had her yearly mammogram. She expected to get a letter in the mail a few days later telling her all was well, just like she had in so many other years.

But she didn't.

"I found out I had invasive ductal carcinoma," she said. "I was just shocked. I had no history of breast cancer in my family. There was no lump.

"When I got the news, I was at first, 'Am I hearing this right?' That's the first thought that goes through your mind. The second thought is, 'Now I have to tell my husband and tell my girls.' ''

The mammogram detected a centimeter-long tumor – small but aggressive. Boggs believes the screening may have saved her life and she is eager to share that belief as race day approaches.

"Early detection is definitely the key to survival," she said. "I know if I had not been doing a screening mammogram …"

Boggs didn't finish her sentence but her point was clear: Without the mammogram, her outcome might have been much different.

The National Cancer Institute says regular screening mammograms and clinical breast exams are the most effective ways to detect breast cancer early, when treatment is most effective. According to a study cited by the Susan G. Komen Foundation, mammography correctly identifies 84 percent of women over 50 who have breast cancer.

Some eight months after her mammogram, Boggs has completed two phases and 20 weeks of chemotherapy and is five weeks through 6 1/2 weeks of radiation. There is no sign of cancer in her lymph nodes and she still hopes to run Mount Marathon on the Fourth of July – 11 days after her final radiation treatment.

"I just feel very blessed," she said.

Boggs had to stifle her initial urge to tell every woman she knows to get their mammograms. But she waited, because her diagnosis came while both of her daughters were away at college and she wanted to tell them the news face-to-face.

Becca, 23, was approaching her graduation at the University of Colorado in Denver and Nikki, 19, had just begun her freshman year at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo.

When the family met in Denver for Becca's graduation in December – two months after the diagnosis – Sheri and Trent Boggs shared their news the day after the ceremony.

"It was a long two months," Boggs said. "I wanted people to know, I wanted women to know this was found on a screening mammogram and there's nothing to be afraid of.

"I had two or three friends who said: 'You know what? I need to go get my mammogram done.' ''

Becca and Nikki returned to Anchorage for the holidays and helped their mother through her first couple of rounds of chemotherapy. Boggs' mother from Texas came to help too.

A close friend, Melissa Meredith, a 12-year survivor of breast cancer, provided constant companionship and support. She went to every doctor's appointment and every chemotherapy session with Boggs, and on Saturday she'll do the race with Boggs.

"I bought a pink running skirt and I have my survivor hat," Boggs said of her race-day wardrobe.

And as usual, she'll honor the survivors she knows by writing their names on one of the "In honor of …" cards available to race participants.

"I guess I will have to add my name now," she said.

Boggs is a runner who enters many footraces and can't remember how many times she's done the Alaska Run for Women. But picking up her bib for this year's race was different than ever before, knowing that this time she'd also get a pink hat.

"You know, it's a group you don't want to be a part of but you sure are thankful that you are," she said of running the race as a survivor.

"One thing I always noticed when I ran the race before was the people I'd see (in pink hats) that were much faster than me and I'd say, 'Wow – you're a survivor? I didn't know that.'

"You see all these women that are wearing survivor hats and it's like, OK, I can get through this. You think, 'My life is gonna be changed forever,' and then you see these women and you think, 'Maybe not. I'm gonna get back to being me.' "