Almost every Friday night for the last five years, you can find Susan at Beantown Tavern with a group of friends. It’s a place that makes her feel a little closer to her Boston roots and where the bartenders know the group by name.  After weeks where life revolves around daily radiation treatments and mornings at the Carolinas Cancer Wellness Center, the Friday night tradition is a spot of normalcy in her shifting world.

To husband John and friends Addie and Gary and others, she’s not ‘Susan the cancer fighter.’  She’s simply Susan Sullivan – their longtime friend and avid Boston Red Sox fan.  In fact, it was a long time before her husband was able to use the ‘C-word’ to describe her diagnosis.  While he can now say ‘cancer,’ he grew up when cancer was a stigma and frequent death sentence.  ”You didn’t dare say the name out loud,” John remembers.  ”It gave it validity.”

Susan is quick to explain the importance of the group that gathers weekly. “One of the most telling things about this group is they really do care,” she explains.  As the group celebrated St. Patrick’s Day,  Donnie, the owner fellow Red Sox fan, bought everyone a drink, stood on the bar and toasted Susan for being a true fighter and friend. “It touched me to have people, some who I only know by sight, cheer me on and tell me they are thinking of me,” she said.  ”Through all my surgeries and treatment I could walk in there and just relax and be myself. They give me normalcy and support.  It is just a great crowd to laugh with, fight politics with and forget the rest of the nonsense happening around me.  And it does make me feel a bit closer to home to hear a Boston accent mixed in with all the Southern ones.”

Five days a week, Susan gets up early to get to her radiation appointment before she attends class at the Carolinas Cancer Wellness Center.  The radiation is follow up treatment to her surgeries, to help ensure all the cancer cells are eliminated.  Susan says the staff and nice atmosphere at the radiation center are what get her through.  While she has become a regular at the center and the procedure itself only takes about 5 minutes, it never stops being nerve-wracking.

Each week, Susan and her fellow participants in the Carolinas Cancer Wellness Program spend time focused on strength training.  Kim Sbardella, the program coordinator explains why they ‘prescribe’ strength training for cancer survivors. “The benefits include reduced cancer related fatigue, improved sleep, improved quality of life, improved range of motion, improved balance, and decreased pain,” she said. “Most importantly exercise can reduce cancer recurrence and prolong survival rate after diagnosis!  Studies have shown risk of cancer recurrence is decreased by up to 50-70%.”

Photos courtesy of Capture Happy Photography. 

Meet Susan. 

Susan is a wife, mom, grandmother, good friend, Cape Cod native and a breast cancer survivor.  She wants to make sure everyone knows that the other things come first.  “I don’t want to be defined by cancer,’ she said the first time we met her. “I’m still me and the disease doesn’t take that away.”

Susan is a current participant in the Carolinas Cancer Wellness Program, a program for cancer survivors funded entirely by 24 Hours of Booty riders.  The program focuses on helping survivors get back in shape and improve their wellness at any stage of their cancer journey.  Participants work with a personal trainer, yoga instructor, registered nurse and dietician to make sure they are doing everything they can to regain strength and get back to normal.

For Susan, the program is an opportunity to do something for herself and move past her disease.  “Since Thanksgiving my life has revolved around my left breast and I’m tired of it!” she said.  “This program gives me the chance to get outside of that and do something entirely for myself.” 

For the next 12 weeks, Susan has graciously agreed to let us follow her journey through the Wellness Program, her radiation treatments and how she is beating cancer.  You can follow her weekly updates every Wednesday on the Booty Blog.

If you or someone you know would like more information about participating in the Carolinas Cancer Wellness Program, please contact Kim.  The program is open to all cancer survivors during any stage of their diagnosis, treatment or remission. 

We’ve heard your feedback! In response to our Giordana NOW Jersey Prime we had last week, we heard a couple of things from you:

1. A lot of your teammates signed up earlier this year with our sliding registration scale.
2. You need more time to recruit!!

So, 24 Hours of Booty is extending our Giordana Jersey Prime! From now through Thursday, February 28^th at noon, you can still register your team to win up to 30 NOW Custom Giordana jerseys. Check out the original post below for contest details.  

Thanks to the generous support of Giordana Custom Cycling Apparel, your 24 Hours of Booty team could win up to 30 NOW Custom Giordana jerseys!

Your team will receive one contest entry for every five riders who join your team between Monday, February 11 – Monday February 18 at 2:00 p.m.  The more riders you have join your team, the higher your chances of winning!

The randomly selected winning team will work with Giordana to design a beautiful custom jersey produced in North Carolina.  Giordana will provide up to 30 jerseys for team members.  Additional jerseys may be purchased.

Brad Bolling, captain of the IMPD Flying Squadron, said winning the Giordana jerseys last year made 24 Hours of Booty feel like a true team event.  ”Our team of police officers uses cycling for fitness, team building and fundraising events.  We wear a uniform on duty and having a Giordana team jersey made us feel like a true team.  We really enjoyed starting the event and finishing the event with most of our team on the course,” said Brad.

Look for the winning team name on Tuesday, February 19th.

Thanks to the generous support of Giordana Custom Cycling Apparel, your 24 Hours of Booty team could win up to 30 NOW Custom Giordana jerseys!

Your team will receive one contest entry for every five riders who join your team between Monday, February 11 – Monday February 18 at 2:00 p.m.  The more riders you have join your team, the higher your chances of winning!

The randomly selected winning team will work with Giordana to design a beautiful custom jersey produced in North Carolina.  Giordana will provide up to 30 jerseys for team members.  Additional jerseys may be purchased.

Brad Bolling, captain of the IMPD Flying Squadron, said winning the Giordana jerseys last year made 24 Hours of Booty feel like a true team event.  ”Our team of police officers uses cycling for fitness, team building and fundraising events.  We wear a uniform on duty and having a Giordana team jersey made us feel like a true team.  We really enjoyed starting the event and finishing the event with most of our team on the course,” said Brad.

Look for the winning team name on Tuesday, February 19th.

Good Luck!

Cancer is a global problem.  While we often think of it as a first world disease, it actually costs the world’s economy more than any other disease in existence – $895 billion.  Did you know that with better education almost 1 in 3 worldwide cancer cases could be prevented by cutting alcohol and tobacco consumption and increasing healthy diet and exercise?  Take a look at the infographic and share in honor of World Cancer Day.  Information matters!