Local uses running to help in her battle against cancer

HAMBURG — A few weeks ago, Catherine Stone had her last round of chemotherapy... well, for now. "You never know," the Hamburg resident said. She was given a clean bill of health for six months. After that, she'll have to wait and see.

For years, Stone was a highly competitive runner with the mantra, "Be contagiously strong and live without limits." A year ago, this philosophy and her years of training and discipline came through in a very different and unexpected way. Suddenly, she had to harness the mental fortitude she'd learned through racing to battle breast cancer.

The Competition
Stone started running competitively when she was 13 and closed out her high school career as one of New Jersey's top runners. This earned her a full scholarship to The University of Arkansas, and while there, she achieved All-American honors in track. After college, she shifted gears and hung up her running shoes for a while to compete in natural bodybuilding and model in fitness ads for publications including Cosmopolitan, Mademoiselle and Self.

In 1995, she could quite her passion for running no longer and began competing again. As recently as 2007, she was the Continental Airlines Fifth Avenue Mile Champion and United States Track and Field Masters Outdoor 400 meter runner up.

She had daughter named Talia Jean, and at about that time, mom and daughter decided to adopt a sibling for Talia. Yan Yuan came into their life, and Stone took a step back from competitive running to be a mom and business owner both in the personal training and day care arenas. Still, Stone competed and in November 2012, she was thrilled to place second at the prestigious Giralda Farms 10K. Though she'd had a good race, something was wrong. She didn't feel right.

Discovery and Diagnosis
Shortly there after, Stone felt a lump in her breast. She was certain it was a fibroid. Then there was a second one. A friend of her 13-year-old daughter's mom had died of breast cancer, so Stone went to the doctor to get it checked out. The doctor was honest and told Stone that she was 99 percent sure a biopsy would come back positive. It did.

"I was in denial at first," Stone said, "How could I get breast cancer? I was a runner, I took care of myself."

The bafflement finally led to the reality of the situation and Stone had a meltdown. The only person she shared her diagnosis with was her dad — that special individual and shoulder to lean on who had helped her achieve so much in the sport of running during her youth.

The diagnosis was Stage 3 aggressive breast cancer, and the next step was to see if it had gone systemic.

"I made a pact with God then," she recalled. "You can give me cancer. I'll take it. But please don't let it have spread throughout my body."

She took the scan and when it came back negative, Stone said that strangely, it was one of the happiest moments of her life.

"Yes, I had breast cancer, but I knew I could fight through," Stone said.

The next few weeks were so hard. Stone didn't want to scare her daughters, so it became a constant juggle of keeping her secret and surviving as well as managing her fear and being the strong, brave person she'd always been as a runner. Finally, just before Christmas, she told her mom, Talia Jean and Yan Yuan.

"They were in shock," Stone said, "And pretty devastated especially because I was the strong, healthy one."

Moving Forward
The next few months weren't pleasant for Stone. Her running background had instilled a very healthy lifestyle in her, and she was determined to research alternative methods of treatment. She did, but given the stage of her cancer, she was told that if she didn't undergo chemo and radiation, she would not live.

She had a double lumpectomy and found a New York plastic surgeon to do her reconstructive surgery. Bravely, she endured a lot of pain, the nausea, the fear and above all, the unknown.

"There just wasn't a lot out there to tell it like it really is when you go through battling breast cancer," she said.

She told few of her disease. Then, her hair started falling out.

"Believe it or not, I was glad," she said. "If your hair doesn't fall out, the treatment isn't working."

She shaved her head, then, so others summarized what was going on.

"I tried to keep it as personal as possible," Stone said.

She became very spiritual and became a student of her disease, learning as much as possible and added green drinks and heavy duty vitamins to her daily regime.

"My daughters even started trying the green drinks," she said.

And Now
Stone's once trademark flowing blonde hair is now a short bob with some surprise curls that appeared. As always, she's model beautiful but her beauty is much more than skin deep. She's become a life coach and an ambassador and educator of breast cancer survival.

"The more women who are aware of breast cancer, the more who will take action and get early detection," she said.

As to that old running philosophy she had? She may have been given limits by the breast cancer, but for now she's beaten it and she'll forever be contagiously strong.

Contact
For any women needing support and would like to contact Stone, they can reach her through her email at rinstone13@yahoo.com.