08/29/2007

Record-Eagle/Jan-Michael Stump
Molly Bridges Williams recently walked 60 miles over three days in Chicago as part of the Breast Cancer 3-Day Benefitting Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Williams trained all summer for the event, which she completed in memory of her sister, Theresa Bridges Price, who died April 8, 2006.

A Walk To Remember

Woman goes the distance for breast cancer in sister's memory

By
Record-Eagle staff writer

Record-Eagle/Jan-Michael Stump
Williams’ hat bore the names of women in her family, friends and their daughters and others she knows that have been touched by breast cancer.

TRAVERSE CITY — Nobody could blame Molly Williams for wanting to give up.

Her feet hurt. The heat was topping 90 degrees. She was drenched in sweat — 60 miles of walking through metropolitan Chicago takes endurance.

But every time she thought about quitting, Williams remembered why she was there, and her sister, Terri Price.

"This might really suck, but think about somebody who is in the hospital right now suffering from breast cancer,” Williams said. "Whatever they're going through, this is nothing. We should be thankful that we can do this.”

Williams, 33, of Traverse City recently completed "The 3-Day,” a fund-raising walk benefiting the Susan G. Komen Foundation for breast cancer research. She covered 60 miles in three days with a friend at her side and has raised almost $4,000.

The walk takes place in 12 cities across the country every year, the most recent in Minneapolis. Williams did the walk Aug. 10-12 in Chicago with her college roommate, Renee Sherman.

She walked with a pink hat on her head, her sister Terri's name, and every female family member's written under the brim. Theresa Bridges Price passed away April 8, 2006 from breast cancer. She taught seventh grade at the Lincoln Middle School in Rockford, Ill., and left behind a husband and six children.

"I was so proud of (Molly),” said her mother, Dottie Bridges, who went to Britten Banners in Traverse City to have a commemoration made.

The banner reads, "Molly, You Did It. Chicago 2007.” Britten made the banner at no charge. It hangs from Williams' roof, where she works out of her home managing human resources for Accenture, a Chicago-based consulting and technology services company. She raised the required $2,200 to enter the walk through colleague donations, and still continues to raise money.

"One of the partners in Chicago did a dollar-for-dollar match up to $1,000,” she said.

She started training in April, gradually increasing her daily walk distance up to 20 miles per day.

The trek got underway the morning of Aug. 12 in Schiller Park, Ill. The heat was in the 90s and walkers had difficulty staying hydrated. Many did not finish.

"People along the route — it was so nice — just normal people were sitting in their front lawn with a cooler full of ice and they'd hand us bags of ice or spray us with their hose,” Williams said.

The fire department got into it, too, spraying walkers with fire hoses as they passed metro stations.

"We started out with a lot of excitement and adrenaline, feeling really good, 'We can do this. It's going to be hard, but not very hard',” Williams said. "I think we walked almost 25 miles the first day. We were like 'OK, this is a lot harder than we thought.'”

Walkers slept in pink tents at night. On Saturday night, a massive thunderstorm swept through, causing 2,000-some walkers to scurry for shelter in a community college gymnasium for a couple hours.

The walk ended Sunday in Lincoln Park at Montrose Harbor. There was a surprise awaiting Williams there: Terri's widowed husband and his children.

"When I saw him I just hugged him and cried, "I can't believe you came',” she said. "He said, 'Of course we did. I can't believe you just walked 60 miles'.”

Williams and Sherman had spent the final miles preparing themselves to be alone at the end of the event.

"That was pretty amazing,” she said. "They've been struggling.”

Back home, Williams' feet have healed and she's had some time to reflect on the walk, which brought a sense of catharsis and solidarity.

"It made me feel like I was actually doing something rather than just being sad,” she said. "It's still very hard, but at least I feel like, 'OK, I raised almost $4,000, but all the people together who walked in Chicago raised a total of $5.6 million.”

The next 3-Day walk takes place in Seattle on Sept. 7.

Visit www.the3day.org for more information.