HEALTH & FITNESS

walk for survival I on the cover

United By

Cancer

Jewish participants mobilize
for 3-Day breast cancer walk.

"I probably walk for all men and

women, but specifically so my

girls won't have to," says Cheryl

Darmon of Farmington Hills,

who has not had breast cancer,

flanked by her children Sanuni,

12, Mollie, 15, and Zach, 17.

uzanne Bartholomew, Ellyn
Davidson, Cheryl Darmon

and Lisa Siegmann will be
among the 1,800 walkers

for Jewish Education in Bloomfield

Township.
"Now, maybe the bottom half of me
will look as good as the top half," she

who are expected to participate in the
2010 Michigan Susan G. Komen 3-Day

adds, with her impish grin.
It was Siegmann's sister, a Toronto

for the Cure Aug. 13-15.
Two have had breast cancer and
three have the genetic mutation

family was susceptible to a genetic
mutation (BRCA1) that often leads to

that puts Jewish women of Eastern
European descent (Ashkenazi) at great-

breast and/or ovarian cancer when
she volunteered for a Canadian-based

resident, who first learned that their

er risk for breast and ovarian cancer

study of Jewish women of Eastern

than the general population.
Here is why they walk:

European descent.
Siegmann's test results were also
positive, indicating a 47 percent risk of

LISA SIEGMANN

ovarian cancer and an 85 percent risk
of breast cancer by age 70.
After consulting specialists, reading

Lisa Siegmann, 45, will walk 60 miles
over three days for the first time to cel-
ebrate completion of all the surgeries

everything she could get her hands on

and procedures she endured in choos-
ing to have her ovaries and breasts

and talking to everyone she knew, "I
made a decision to go along with both

removed — although she had no diag-

surgeries," she says.
After her mastectomies, the follow-up
pathology showed T showed three very

nosis of cancer.
"Once everything was done, I wanted
to do the 3-Day," says the Oak Park

wife and mother of three who is associ-
ate director at the Jewish Federation

of Metropolitan Detroit's Alliance

small areas of non-invasive cancer, fur-
ther confirming her pro-active course.

"It was 11/2 years — first procedures

UNITED BY CANCER on page 40

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2010

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