Wednesday, October 20, 1999
'Team Shelley' back for strides against cancer
BY SUE MacDONALD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Last October, Jim Rice of Finneytown and 125 of his family members and friends took part in a walk and fund-raiser for breast cancer because his wife, Michele, was at home dying of the disease she had battled for two years.
“I don't know if everyone realized that at the time, but I knew it and it was our effort to keep her around,” he says.
|
IF YOU GO
|
• What: Making Strides Against Breast Cancer 5-mile Ohio River walk.
• When: 10 a.m. Sunday at Bicentennial Commons at Sawyer Point. Registration begins at 9 a.m.
• Information: 891-1600
|
This Sunday, Mr. Rice and 300-400 members of “Team Shelly” will again walk along the Ohio River to honor Michele, who died June 8 at the age of 41 after a three-year battle with breast cancer. For the husband and father of three teen-agers, the purpose of this year's walk is very clear.
“My goal now is to make sure that this doesn't happen to my daughter or to your daughter or to someone else that I know,” says Mr. Rice, a financial consultant to non-profit organizations.
“Cancer struck my family, and if everybody just did a little part, I think we'd all be better off. And if someone had done a few more parts five years ago, maybe my wife would still be around.”
More than 4,000 people are expected to take part in Sunday's Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk, a five-mile fund-raiser for the American Cancer Society's (ACS) programs in Southwestern Ohio and Northern Kentucky.
The walk benefits ACS's Special Touch breast health education program for area women and high school girls; Reach to Recovery, a visitation program by breast cancer survivors to newly diagnosed breast cancer patients; and Look Good ... Feel Better, a program to help women deal with self-esteem and body image issues with the help of cosmetologists and hair stylists.
ACS also provides money for hundreds of women without health insurance to receive mammograms.
ACS estimates 175,000 women (and 1,300 men) will be diagnosed with breast cancer in the United States in 1999, and about 43,000 women and 400 men will die from it.
On Sunday, Mr. Rice expects a celebratory tribute to his wife, not a memorial.
“I am not in despair and sorrow,” he says. “I had a wonderful experience. The script that was written for us — I didn't like the ending, but my wife's life on this earth was something to celebrate. She taught me a valuable lesson, and that's what the true meaning of love is.
“When someone's healthy, it's really easy to love them, but when they're in agony and hurting ... that's when she truly became my hero.”
EDITORIAL: Sex-ed: Who's in control?
Excerpts from CDC sex education
State says it won't force plan on local schools
What you can do
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Auditor cries foul on stadium tax use
City idea: State park on the river
Shirey urges moratorium on spending
Tax levy foes howling at Drake surplus
Tobacco payment spending unsettled
Drivers ease off pedal on I-275
Inmates do good as they do time
Teen moms settle suit over honor society ban
2nd man charged in drive-by
Children's agency responds to criticism
Elsmere ready to fight new jail
Playhouse version of 'Glass Menagerie' reflects the new
Best Halloween treats aren't tricky
GET TO IT
If patients define goals, doctor says, they cultivate good habits
Sure it's sinuses?
'Team Shelley' back for strides against cancer
Local radio giveaways aren't always local
Boy, 5, hospitalized; legal guardian charged
Finneytown superintendent to retire
Gathering in Butler County remembers victims of crime
Lakota ponders merits of school for freshmen
Low-rate loans planned for Price Hill homes
Marriott drops plans for assisted-living complex
Mayors, Olympians have message for kids: Get fit
Middletown builders blast fees
Milford has growing pains
Mining bid wins 1 vote in Boone Co.
Mother, daughter plead guilty in theft
Ohio takes voucher case to U.S. Supreme Court justice
Rep. Watts to speak at Clermont Co. fund-raiser
Scientist fair puts emphasis on people
Teacher accused of striking 8-year-old
Teen cleans up with $1,000 prize
tires turned in
United Way two-thirds to its goal
