#59 Living With Metastatic Disease While Climbing for a Cure

Navigating through breast cancer presents numerous daunting challenges, and metastatic disease undoubtedly ranks high among them.

In this episode, meet Lesley Glenn, a remarkable metastatic breast cancer survivor. Alongside Marissa Garavito, they co-founded “Climb for a Cure”, an annual fundraiser in Diamond Bar, California, dedicated to bolstering research for metastatic disease. Lesley defies the odds; not only has she surpassed the 2 to 3-year average lifespan post-diagnosis, but she's also living her dream life seven years on. Discover her transformative journey.

As many survivors can attest, the aftermath of treatment is often misunderstood by those around them. Marissa, through Lesley's experiences, recognized the dire need for heightened awareness and research on metastatic disease. Their shared passion birthed Climb for a Cure.

Now in its fifth year, the Climb for a Cure event is slated for October 26, 2019. Dive into this episode to learn how you can join this uplifting event, stand alongside fellow survivors, and contribute to a pivotal cause, knowing your involvement directly fuels research.

Follow Marissa: Email: [email protected]
Website: www.MakeMoves.fit
IG: https://www.instagram.com/makemoves.fit/

Follow Lesley:

On instagram: @livingauthenticallylesley
Blog:  www.livingauthenticallylesley.com
Contact her: [email protected]

Register to participate in Climb for a Cure:

https://climbforacure.net/

Read the full transcript:

0:01
This is Laura Lummer, the breast cancer recovery coach. I'm a healthy lifestyle coach, a clinical or Aveda specialist, a personal trainer, and I'm also a breast cancer survivor. In this podcast, we talk about healthy thinking and mindfulness practices, eating well, moving your body for health and longevity. And we'll also hear from other breast cancer survivors who have reengaged with life and have incredible stories to share. This podcast is your go to resource for getting back to life after breast cancer. Hello, and welcome to episode 59 of the breast cancer recovery coach. I am your host Laura Lummer. And you're in for a great show. Today, you're going to meet two amazing women was Lea Glen who is a metastatic breast cancer survivor. And Marissa Vito who is her business partner. And an amazing event held here every October in Southern California called climb for a cure, which raises funds to support researching a cure for metastatic disease. So I'm going to tell you a little bit more about both of these women. And then you're going to hear about how you can get involved in this event. If you want to volunteer if you live locally here in Southern California and you want to participate, it's going to be a lot of fun. And before I get any further into that, I just want to give a shout out to jewelry, salon, jewelry, which I think is actually your name and not just a handle, left a wonderful review for the podcast and I just want to share it with you because it's so meaningful. Jory says excellent recovery coach. I'm a young breast cancer survivor diagnosed at 34. And this podcast has literally saved me from feeling completely alone through this journey. I enjoy every single episode and look forward to spending my morning commute with Laura, I love that. Please keep this podcast going. There are so many women young, old and in between that are struggling to fit into their life after cancer. It is a terrible disease that robs women of so much. This podcast has encouraged me to stay active, eat better. And above all else, be kind and patient with myself. I truly cannot thank you enough. Bravo, Laura. Thank you so so much joy. And moms, I had to read this several times before I could actually read it on air because it just choked me up to know that you find that support. But you actually find things that are actionable for you that you can implement in your life that make you feel better, and help you to feel included and not alone. And I'm so incredibly happy to hear that. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to leave that review. And I have no intention of letting this podcast go by the wayside. So I will continue. And I'll think of you. If you also out there are listening and you enjoy listening to the breast cancer recovery coach, it would mean so much to me. If you could find the time to just leave a quick review. Leave a few stars an honest review for the show. It's so incredibly helpful. So moving on, I want to tell you a little bit more about Lesley Glen and Marissa gara Beto. So Leslie was diagnosed with early stage to be breast cancer in 2012. And then with incurable stage four metastatic breast cancer with disease in her bones in May of 2013. But Leslie has not let her cancer determine her life's path. She and her husband of 27 years live in Southern Oregon. She and you're going to hear a great story about that and how she got there. She loves the outdoors and especially hiking and backpacking. Leslie's been an advocate within the metastatic breast cancer community for over five years now. And she was recently awarded the living beyond breast cancer Volunteer Leadership Award in the fall of 2018. Leslie has written for numerous publications she's been featured in national magazines, and she has also had the opportunity to speak for national campaigns on new treatments for Stage Four metastatic breast cancer as well as being a peer reviewer for research grants. Leslie's passion, her motivation and a personal experience of living with disease really drive her desire to partner with communities and organizations in aiding the funding of research for a cure. She wants to bring awareness to this overlooked stage of breast cancer and bring support to those who live daily with metastatic breast cancer. She's an amazing woman you guys are gonna love listening to her. Now Marissa Vito is Leslie's business partner. And Marissa is the The most inspiring, energetic woman you could possibly imagine. I met Marissa through a mastermind group that we were both involved in. And I was so inspired by her and her story, and the event that she and her partner put on climb for a cure. Marissa is a form of bikini competitor and fitness professional. But because of this woman's big heart and her amazing soul, she wanted to go beyond just working out. So she not only became a lifestyle coach to support women in their holistic life, but she uses her business to really be connected to her community to raise funds for Autism Speaks in the American Cancer Society, and she has co founded this annual climb for a cure, which she is super proud of and should be because it's an incredible event, you're going to hear a lot about it, and I am going to post links. So you can read even more about Marissa about climb for a cure, and find out how you can get involved as well. And I think by the end of this show, you're going to be so inspired and so motivated, to live your best life to do the things you're passionate about. And to not put them off for another day after listening to these incredible women. And you're gonna want to be out there on October 26 climbing for a cure. So without making you wait any longer. Let's talk with Lesley and Marissa, Lesley and Marisa, welcome to the breast cancer recovery coach. And thank you so much for joining me today. I'm super honored to have you guys here. And I'm really excited to talk on this show about living with metastatic disease, and how you can live a fulfilling and happy life. And what you two have done to try to make a difference in the way that we look at metastatic disease, and how we can support research in this area. So let's hear about your story. Marissa, how did you and Lesley become business partners,

7:05
me and Leslie became business partners. And now almost six years ago now starting our first climb in 2015. wanting to do something more than just bring awareness to breast cancer. But actually start funding research because there is no cure when somebody has metastatic breast cancer. So

7:28
let's define really quickly. What does metastatic breast cancer mean? Mostly.

7:34
So metastatic breast cancer is basically breast cancer that has gone outside of your breast outside of your lymph nodes and to other areas of your body to vital organs, such as your liver, lungs, brain and your bones.

7:52
Okay. And so in October, we wear pink shoes, we wear pink T shirts, we distribute pink ribbons everywhere. But what's the difference? Do you think between really breast cancer awareness, and this raising understanding to what metastatic disease is and how it impacts us?

8:11
Well, I think Leslie just really like shined a light on the situation. I think I was in the bubble that everyone is currently in and thinking because I participate in a walk or because I buy something that the NFL is supporting. I am doing my job or I am I am helping those with breast cancer. But in reality, like when I started talking to Lesley, I was like I'm not doing anything special. I'm not really changing the game or trying to enlighten the general population on like, what's really going on. So I think her truth and her vulnerability and saying like, no, there's so much more to this. And I think the fact when she told me only 7% of funds in October, go to actual research, like that blew my mind. And so knowing that, you know, we have a voice and even if it's a small voice, and if it starts small, at least we can decide what we want to do with the funds that are raised, and we have the input. And me and Leslie can make the decisions on how we can actually try to better, better the, I guess the community and just enlighten people and educate people on what's really going on.

9:33
Yeah. And we're going to talk more about that because I think that what you said is a really good point. Most people think when we talk about breast cancer awareness, it's like oh my gosh, check for lumps. And we have so little understanding of what goes on beyond finding that lump. So, Lesley, I want to hear your story. Let's share your story with everybody.

9:56
Okay, so I was the one that found my lump back in 2012. And I mean, I had done everything right. You know, we discussed this before I was eating right, I moved my body, I was at my ideal weight. And, you know, had my annual mammograms, I was 47. At first I was diagnosed on stage to be when you're diagnosed with breast cancer, they automatically will make you go do all these scans. So I had had bone scans and CT scans, I had a PET CT. At that time, they had already found hot spots in my body. So it was already presumed that I was metastatic at that point. However, because of the trickiness of where they saw the hotspots, they needed to biopsy it to, number one, make sure that it was cancer and number two, to make sure that if it was cancer, that it was breast cancer, and not some secondary cancer, okay. However, the biggest tumor that I had was in my shoulder and it took approximately six months to find an orthopedic surgeon to agree to do it, because everyone else was afraid that if they went in there, that I would lose mobility of my arm. So I was biopsied in May of 2013. And then diagnosed stage four shortly after

11:29
going through treatment for a year already since the initial diagnosis have to be.

11:33
Yeah, so I was diagnosed to be the day before Thanksgiving in 2012. We immediately started me on chemotherapy, I was put on a C which is known as the Red Devil, which is like the worst chemotherapy out there. And the reason why is they were saying okay, well we let's shrink the tumor first before we go and we give you you know, surgery and a double mastectomy and blah, blah, blah. But that almost killed me. So we stopped doing that. And I pretty much orchestrated since then my whole treatments sim, because that's just who I am. So yeah, so I was diagnosed stage four in May of 2013. I did I refuse chemo after that. I decided to have a lumpectomy instead of having a mastectomy, which was my personal choice. I did agree to have radiation. So I had 53. No 34. No 35 courses of radiation, five courses of radiation. Yeah, that's every single day, five days a week. And then I had what they call they call it like a super shot. So I had like, super shots into my shoulder to try and to get rid of the biggest tumor there. My other hotspots in my pelvis had disappeared. So they had said, Okay, well, maybe that was because of the chemo. So maybe the chemo did something good. Because it didn't, it didn't even shrink my lung.

13:16
And when you when you stopped the AC chemo, you stopped chemo altogether. You just didn't switch other chemotherapy agents. What I loved is that you said you are your own advocate and you decided what was working for you? Yes,

13:31
quality of life is everything to me. And it's my body and it's my life. And I should have a say so and how I want to live it. So from there, I was getting healthier. I was just I was a hot mess. You should see pictures of me coming out of treatment. And my husband had taken me to Yosemite and I could barely even walk a mile like barely. And I was watching all these hikers come off of the John Muir Trail. And I sat there and I said, doggone it, I said, I'm going to do that. I'm going to train and I am going to do something of that caliber. So I went back home, I decided to climb Mount Whitney, which is the highest mountain in the contiguous United States. Yeah, I trained for seven months dragged along two of my friends and submitted on my first try, which people don't ever do.

14:36
Wow. Were you going through treatment at this time? Or what? What's happening with

14:40
Oh, yeah, you never stop going through treatment. It's still worth

14:43
having while you were doing Mount Whitney. So by then

14:47
I was just on an aromatase inhibitor and actually I was on Tamoxifen for about a year. And then when I started having murderous thoughts, I'm like, maybe we should change that.

15:00
Maybe you'd be murderous thoughts or bad.

15:06
Honestly, right here.

15:09
I'm like, I don't think this is working for me. So we actually changed me to letrozole. And so that was more it was kinder my hormones. So yeah, I was on treatment during that time, and that's when I fell in love with the outdoors. I fell in love with backpacking and hiking. And that's where we came up with claim for a cure. So, okay,

15:35
so yeah, so let's talk about claim for a cure. What is claim for a cure?

15:43
Claim for a cure is an event we have hosted for the past four, this is our fifth year. And it's a small hike in in Diamond Bar, where people come together to raise funds for awareness, support and research of stage four metastatic breast cancer.

16:00
That's awesome. And why is it so important? You guys have targeted? I guess I'm gonna say targeted fundraising to know that this is what's happening with my money, like what happens when we go out to all of these breast cancer events throughout October, we buy pink things everywhere, everywhere. What happens to that money?

16:26
Only 7% will go to research for a cure. 7% of the billions of dollars that are raised, will go to research. Why? Where does the rest of it go? awareness that I'm all?

16:42
in their pockets, I think what people fail to understand is that you go into a grocery store and you're gonna buy your yo play yogurt, and it's got a pink ribbon on the top of it. Um, most of these large companies have already decided number one, how much they're going to give to breast cancer. They've already decided, so say that? I don't know. Let me just give some generic yogurt name. A creamy yogurt. Okay, so yogurt yogurt, is a creamy fruit on the bottom yogurt. Yeah. Puts pink ribbons on there. The tops and they're like, Okay, yes. So if you buy our yogurt, then a portion of it is going to go towards breast cancer awareness or whatever. Number one. If you were to ask them, okay, where where is? What's the organization that it's going to? They might look, they'll probably say, oh, Susan, Susan G komen or something else. But what they don't tell you is that maybe they're only going to give $20,000 That's their max. So you know that their creamy yogurt is going to sell more than $20,000 worth of yogurt? Where does the rest of that go? in their pockets.

18:06
So they can predetermine the cap that they're going to donate to breast cancer research or awareness or whichever, prior to starting that fundraiser. So it's actually a big marketing campaign where we want to buy a lot of stuff because we, as consumers think we're doing a great thing, and we want to do a great thing. But we don't know behind the scenes, it may not be going where we want it to go.

18:28
Exactly. So you have to ask the questions. And you know, you go to all the walks and stuff that may be happening. I mean, I would even you know, as an early stager, I would be asking how much of this money is going to go to research. You know, and if you hear oh, well, three to 7%. It's like, what the hell

18:51
yeah. where so much of your money goes to research for climb for a cure

18:57
50% 50%.

18:59
And the rest of it goes to

19:02
it goes to living beyond breast cancer, which has a lot of support for the metastatic patient.

19:08
Awesome. And the cost of I mean, it's expensive to put on any kind of a fundraiser or an event. Right, you gotta go.

19:15
And we this is the donated funds after cost of the event has been taken care of. So yeah, we've definitely do our part and making sure like when we say we're last year, we donated $16,000 Like, that was $16,000 after the cost of our event. We were

19:34
awesome and that went to living beyond breast cancer and breast cancer research.

19:40
Yeah, meta fiber and fiber. We've added city of hope, because a lot of people that we know who are thrivers that are they do a lot of their treatments at City of Hope. So City of Hope is going to be one of our third don't well that we're doing.

19:56
So Leslie, I know that you know I've heard Just before and you you said this a few minutes ago that once you've been diagnosed with metastatic disease, you're in treatment for the rest of your life. Right? Yes. So aside from being in treatment for the rest of your life, how do you live with metastatic disease, and live and enjoy life? And how has that impacted the decisions that you make right now to live the life that you actually dreamed about and wanting to live?

20:26
Um, you know, they say that cancer changes everything, and cancer changes nothing, which is very true, it changes everything, but at the same time, life still has to go on. Did you know and it's, it also has to do with I think, you know, just my personal philosophy of who I am and what I believe in and how I want to live my life. And I'm not, I used to be a dreamer, I'm going to wait until this day to do this, or I'm going to wait until I have this amount of money to do this. And cancer really changed that, that my husband and I, we just decided not to wait anymore. Because you know, time is limited. I mean, we all have a death sentence. Yes. We all have a death sentence. Mine may be a little bit sooner than everyone else's. Maybe. Maybe, maybe.

21:23
Let's see your how many years out from what should have been two years?

21:26
Two to three years? Yes. And yeah. Seven, seven. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. So we, you know, I did shortly after I was diagnosed, I quit saying yes to everything. And my favorite word was no. So I stopped all my volunteer work for a while. I stopped working. I basically stopped everything. Because what I found out was I didn't want to be lezlie. Mom, I didn't want to be Leslie employee, I didn't want to be Lesley. You know, volunteer at school, I wanted to be who I was. And you know what, I actually didn't know who I was outside of all of the hats that I wore. So how do you figure that out? So I took what I call my one life, my one year life sabbatical. Okay, and we sold our house. In Corona, we moved down to the beach. And I basically took a year off from everything, including social media and all of that, and just spent a year figuring out how I wanted to live the rest of my life knowing that I had a terminal illness. And what was important to me, okay, and then from there, you know, it just kinda has come full circle. You know, I will always what I did in my past was I was always the champion for the underdog. And for the marginalized. Well, I just moved that and I just did it. Now I do it for the NBC community, the metastatic breast cancer community, and I advocate a lot within the community. And one of the things that we always wanted to do was, you know, okay, when we retire, we're gonna move to a small town and, and so that was always a pipe dream. And we were just like, one day sitting down, we're like, what if? What if we just did it anyways? What if we did it now. And so we made it happen. And my husband was able to negotiate with his office in LA, and he kept his job and kept his salary. And he just moved works out of a home office here in a little town of central point, Oregon. We get all four seasons, and there's no traffic.

23:50
So when you took your life sabbatical for a year, you decided, hey, I want to be out in nature. I want to be what was it?

24:00
Yeah, I want to I don't want to be I don't want to fight traffic anymore. I don't want to be amongst throngs of people where everybody's just seems to be stressed out all the time. Yeah. Because I knew that that just wasn't good for me.

24:18
So, are you guys familiar with Marie Forleo? Oh, yes. Okay, so, Marie Forleo recently published a book, right, everything is figure out double. Yeah. And in that what she talks about is, if you want to bad enough, you'll figure it out. Right? You'll figure out like you did, like, these are huge, scary steps. You just talked about selling your home, right? Oh, I'm selling my home and I'm gonna take a year off from everything and just like, tune into myself and figure out what I want to do with my life. And we're so programmed to follow this. You get a job, you have stability, you have benefits, you know, whatever, whatever. We have this This program, so but it was so important to us like holy crap like life could end at any point which it could for anybody, regardless of whether or not we've been diagnosed with cancer. But it hit home to such a point that it was figured out double right for you. You're like, we're gonna figure this out, and we're gonna live happy. We're gonna live the life we want to live. Have you ever looked back on that decision went, Oh, shit, what was I thinking?

25:26
No, no, no.

25:30
But you're happy and you love it. So what do you guys do? Now let's talk about claim for a cure. And what is it? Where does it happen? When does it happen? And how can people get involved?

25:42
It is in Diamond Bar at the Diamond Bar center on October 26. You can register online, actually, registration will be open for a couple more days. But if you're hearing if you're listening to this after, we highly encourage you to show up date of we've really made it to more like I don't want to say a party. But it's more of an event now. Like Starbucks will be there. They donate coffee for us. We'll have a DJ a photo booth, and it's definitely growing to more of a family friendly morning.

26:14
That's awesome. When will you be there? Leslie? The event? Will you be hiking with us?

26:22
I usually don't because I'm caught up in doing everything. Yeah. The hostess.

26:28
Yeah, I think we both like the first year. And then after that, we're like, Whoa, there's just so much going on.

26:33
So much. I bet. Yeah. So I mean, ask Leslie. So, you know, I'm sure as well as I do that one of the most common experiences for women after breast cancer is depression is the feeling of being lost is that once were released from medical treatment, we just kind of go like, Whoa, I mean, the PTSD sets and we figure out what we've just been through and, and we feel isolated and alone, oftentimes, like, so for me, in my own experience, I can understand that feeling of wow, I'm supposed to get back to normal. But there's no getting back to normal. But I don't obviously have the experience of Holy shit. I am living with this disease inside my body. Because the first thing you think of when you're diagnosed with cancer is get it out. How do you get it out? Right. So what can you talk about for us? Like what how do you how do you process that? And how do you? How do you deal with that and go on and and yeah, live with having metastatic disease? It's gotta be tough.

27:39
Well, I will say it is definitely a roller coaster ride. When I went to my first metastatic breast cancer conference back in 2014, I went in and newly diagnosed, I walked in shell shocked. Yeah, because there were women that looked like me, you know, we were starting our hair, my hair had basically all grown back. So there were those of us that looked really healthy. And then there were those that were dragging oxygen tanks behind them, and then those on walkers. And I remember being standing in that doorway thinking, I can't do this, like, because I was seeing my future in some of those women. And I also want to say that men get breast cancer too. So. So yeah, but I unfortunately, fortunately, I had a mentor that I was rooming with. And her name is Joe Cohen, who I lost a couple years ago. And she she really was the catalyst for me of how to live with this. And she told me Leslie, you need to make peace with your body. Because as much as you want to live the cancer wants to live as well. And for me, that was that was just kind of a it was a light bulb going off for me. And I was like, You know what? You're right. I cannot hate my body. Yeah, because I have to live with my body. And if I hate my body, then I'm not going to take care of my body. So I had to come to peace with my body and say, okay, you know what cancer you want to live, but I want to live even more. Yeah. So you know what, let's just go on. Let's just do this thing. And I really became a mindfulness practitioner and a gratitude practitioner. Awesome, which I highly believe in. And, you know, I was fortunate to be ne D no evidence of disease for five years. Oh, no. However, I've always struggled with depression even before I was diagnosed with breast cancer. So, I've always been in some point seasons of my life, I've been on antidepressants. And I will say that I probably I started off on antidepressants. When I was first diagnosed, I was on it probably for about two years felt really good. Alright, I can go off of it. However, in November of last year, I had this great idea. I'm like, I am going to go to my oncologist, because I've been NAD for five years. And I'm going to tell her, I want to take a break from treatment.

30:37
And she was like,

30:38
Oh, you're so special. Lesley. She's like, well, before I agree to let you do that, she's like, we need to do another set of scans. Well, God forbid cancer came back at

30:52
those scans is when she discovered you had disease still? Yeah, again.

30:56
Yeah, so my disease had recurred back in my pelvis. Okay. And, you know, the, the shoe drop for me. And I went through a really dark period, because I was like, Wow, I'm not as resilient or superhuman, as I thought I was

31:18
a little more superhuman.

31:21
So, you know, I did, I had to go, I had to go back on antidepressants. Um, we did radiation of the tumor on my iliac. And I had to go on anxiety medication, because I went through a whole period of PTSD. Okay. And it took a lot for me to even get on that table for them to zap me, but And so, you know, I feel like, um, I, you know, went through that really dark time. It made me contemplate a lot again, in my life of how I wanted to live my life. There were a lot of tears as far as my kids and my husband are concerned, you know, because, well, we want mom and we want my wife to be, you know, we want her with us. Yeah, forever. That's yeah. So you know, and then I, about a month ago, I started having really bad symptoms of dizziness, and just really scary symptoms. And so, now I will be scan tomorrow, I have an MRI of my brain to rule out that it hasn't progressed into my brain. Am I freaked out? Absolutely. You know, they actually because of the PTSD and my anxiety I have been asked to put be put totally out. Good for you. Yeah, just so you know, it's taken a little bit longer, I had to actually cancel all of my trips that I had planned, which were probably even more devastating than the symptoms themselves. I even tried to talk my oncologist into letting me go backpacking. My her and my husband are looking at me, like, are you serious, and I'm like, you

33:18
will kinda like I want a backpack.

33:22
But I didn't go. So you know, it's, for the most part. I feel like I have a very positive outlook on life. And I'm very grateful to be here. But that's not to say that I don't have my bad days where I don't want to get out of bed, or it's just really overwhelming. And tomorrow will be one of those days.

33:42
Yeah. And can we just say that? That's okay. I mean, sometimes we have to check out sometimes stuff is really hard, right and difficult. And I think as women, we think we have to shoulder it all, we think we should be stronger. We have to be able to do this. And then if we're not, Oh, shame on me for not being the warrior and the hero and being able to do everything. We can't do it. All right, it's tough. It's really, really difficult. And if you feel like, Hey, I'm struggling, I need an antidepressant kit one. If you feel like sure, this is overwhelming, I'm so anxious to get some help. That's why it's there. Right? Absolutely.

34:25
And there's no shame in it.

34:27
No shame. Don't feel bad about it. And maybe you need it for a long time. And maybe you need it just to bring you back into balance. So you can wrap your head around whatever is happening, and then move forward from there. And then it's your choice if you feel like you're ready to change from that point. But I see so many women's suffer and and just not allow themselves to reach out for help. And I want to say stop it. It's okay. You know, get help get support when you need support. And, and don't be afraid to say that. And I love that. Absolutely. All right. So let's talk more about this awesome event you guys are doing. So on October 26, really come to Diamond Bar California, we're going to do claim for the cure. How long is the climb? How steep is climbing Mount Whitney? What's happening? How can we show up? And what can we expect?

35:30
So, morning, check in start at 7am, we will have an opening ceremony at ADM. This year, we will be honoring two thrivers that are no longer with us that were actually at our event last year. So we will be presenting some plaques to their families just as a remembrance and kind of giving people a visual of really like why we are here. And everyone was somebody's been affected by it. And somebody that they saw last year on that trail is no longer with us. So that will be our opening ceremony at A and then as soon as that happens is get on the trail and take your time and go for a hike. So this is where people get a little confused. So there's a shorter hike. That's like a mile and a half right, Leslie? Yeah, moderate. And then there's a second hike. That's I want to say closer to two miles, but it has some hills. But somehow somebody always makes a wrong turn. And sometimes they go on the harder side. And sometimes they go on the easy side. But overall, it's about a two mile hike, Max, but all age. All athletic levels are welcome. My clients who are like seven years old can do the hike. And we encourage you to bring your dogs we have doggy bandanas for all the dogs that registered prior to the event. And that's definitely family friendly.

36:58
That's great. And I'm going to post links to where people can purchase tickets and go to the event. But what website can they go to what's the best way to get ahold of you guys?

37:08
Probably register dot climb for a cure dotnet or Instagrams always the easiest if you go to at make good moves, is our Instagram tag, we have officially started the process for being our own 501 C three. So by the end of this year, we should be a legitimize nonprofit, and we'll be able to do even bigger things for next year.

37:31
Awesome. Yay. That's awesome. So before we wrap this up, is there anything else in particular, you guys would like this audience to know or hear Leslie about you about being a survivor with metastatic disease, about your events about anything at all that we haven't covered?

37:48
I think for me, being a metastatic patient, and knowing that the advocacy needs to be continued, because this is the overlooked stage of breast cancer. You know, not only in October, but you know, year round, is that, you know, as people start to share, we really need allies in the community for metastatic breast cancer, because unfortunately, I have a revolving door of friends, which means that you know that I lose friends all the time, like I have lost so many friends in the past seven years for metastatic disease. And so you in being an advocate, you know, there's only so much that I can do so what I appreciate the most about this event is that is that there's a Marissa out there. And if I'm gone, Marissa is going to carry on that legacy. And for me, being a part of the metastatic community, that is the best thing that I could ever ask for is knowing that somebody else is going to carry that on and be able to share the truth about stage four. And I think that a lot of you know if we could get there, there seems to be a wall between early stage and stage four. And the reason I think is is we scare the early stagers, right, you know, where they're like, oh my gosh, we do not want to be you. Right. But on the other hand, it's like, well, but you also want to learn as much as you can about metastatic disease. In case you are that 20 to 30% Yeah, and we should be doing no more save the Tata type things, flashing our boobs and our bras. We should be pouring money into research so that you guys don't ever have to be Stage Four. That's where the monies need to go. So,

40:04
yeah. And can I just say to that, I think it's important to understand that when we hear metastatic disease or stage four cancer, that we can't dismiss that as a death sentence, that we can look at that and say, This is not a death sentence. This is, this is a woman I'm looking at right now who's living life and his loving life, and he has been living in loving life with disease for seven years. And that we can't just dismiss people oh, god stage for us to live. He's the baby. You know, like, we have to understand that we can live with cancer, you know, so many times still, I hear people say, Oh, you had cancer. I didn't know you could live past cancer. And it's like, you know, all this money spent on awareness. People don't even know we can live past a diagnosis yet, for God's sake. So yes, let's pour it into something that's more meaningful, like actually helping to understand how to live with and how to cure metastatic disease or any other stage of it. Yeah. Okay, what about you, Marissa?

41:06
I agree. 100% What Lesley, we always go back and forth. And I think I just always go to this statistic. And I'm thankful that Lesley is still with us. And I'm thankful that I can still bounce my ideas off of her. But the long term is, is I might be doing this on my own. And, and it's, we need more people who want to share what's really going on, and, and be okay to say, hey, maybe we shouldn't do that pink walk, maybe we should do something else. Like, like, let's go outside the norm and start doing something that actually matters. So for I always support Lesley and everything is what she says we're gonna do and like advocacy Wise, who we're going to donate to, it's like, that is our goal. That's how we're going to do it. And, Mike, my goal is just to be able to be the business end behind it and actually make it happens. So whoever she wants that money to go to, uh, whoever what needs the REIT like, I support you 100% I will never question that. I just feel like my, my purpose in all this is just to make shit happen. Awesome.

42:22
And she told us she totally does. No, she does. He does.

42:28
I know. So yeah, I just think like, I just want more people if people are interested in how they can help or in the future. Volunteer even I know people have asked us like, how do we get it in our city. And that is literally something that we are working on. And I will say probably in the next few years, we will have another location. So still need

42:51
volunteers for your event in October on October 26.

42:55
We always have tears. Yes. So go ahead and reach out to us. And we can definitely always use the extra hands for for handing out metal shirts, leading people the right way, but will never

43:08
reach out to the same website in order to volunteer. Yep,

43:11
exactly. Um, probably more the website or like I said, Instagram is gonna be more of like a, an immediate response usually. So Okay.

43:21
Well, you guys come on out. Lesley is going to be there race is going to be there. I mean, for a cure, and really be hanging on to that idea that there is a cure waiting. Yep. Yes. So thank you so much, ladies for joining me today. I really, really appreciate it's been my honor to get to chat with you.

43:39
Thank you for having us.

43:42
What an amazing story. I mean, these women are so inspiring. And we know how difficult it is to get back to life after breast cancer. How when you get out of breast cancer treatment to so many things you have to deal with. And as difficult as that struggle can be to listen to someone like Lesley who is always in treatment and always learning how to live with this disease still in her body, but embrace life, to the extent that she not only followed her own passion in her own dream, but that she is funding a cure to help other people to be able to live their dream as well and she's inspiring other people just awesome. I love it so much. So check out the show notes for this episode. Laura lummer.com forward slash 59 where you'll find all the links to check out Morris's website, to check out the climb for cure website to get registered to participate or to volunteer to help give out those medals to all those other awesome participants are who knows something else that might be needed. So I thank you for listening. And if you haven't gone to my website yet and downloaded my free guide four steps to healing after breast cancer So, I hope you do that. It's a very simple, four foundational steps to begin to follow after breast cancer treatment. And it begins to incorporate some mindful steps that you can use to support that practice and support your healing. And if you're ready to go deeper than that, come to my website, Laura lummer.com. Go to coaching and courses, and join us in revivify, where you vivify is my 100% online course, that takes you through releasing the things that keep you stuck, regrouping your life and creating the support system, the nutrition plan, the exercise plan that you need to support yourself properly, and reviving your life, breathing life back into that getting an idea of the direction and the way that you want to live. You also have the option of joining our private Facebook community that has some amazing women, some thrivers in there that you would not believe who continue to overcome hurdles in their lives, deal with the struggles and support others who are also in Rebuild by joining us while they're still in treatment and overcoming those sides effects and challenges in their efforts to get back to life. So I look forward to seeing you there. And I hope you come over and find me on Facebook where you get more motivation, inspiration and insights on a regular basis. Or find me on Instagram as the breast cancer recovery coach, and I'll talk to you again next week. Until then, be good to yourself.

46:37
Use courage to the test laid all your doubts your mind is clearer than before your heart is full and wanting more your futures Give it all you know you've been waiting

47:07
this is your