Mercedes Toro Mineola, New York United States Amazon Heart Thunder United States 2006 Support Van Driver

Amazon Heart asks "What if breast cancer is just the start of an incredible journey?"
Who knew? Certainly not me! If anyone had told me that at 40 I'd be diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer, have a mastectomy and replace the breast with a belly muscle, I'd have said they were nuts.

After all, I was a former oncology nurse- I'd taken care of cancer patients and certainly didn't ever expect to be one.

I had plans- I'd just made partner in a big law firm and won my first two trials. But more importantly, we were expecting to adopt a baby- instead I became the poster child for routine screening mammograms.

I never expected that over the next 7 years I'd get a new wardrobe (consisting largely of pink t-shirts from various fundraisers), paddle on a survivors' dragon boat team and learn to fly fish with Casting for Recovery. Or that I'd white water raft down the Colorado river and camp in the Grand Canyon for 9 (very hot) days.

Or that I'd walk 60 miles from Santa Barbara to Malibu to raise money for breast cancer-while interviewing survivors along the way and reporting about it on the Web. Or that during another 3Day walk in Boston, I'd become known as "The Pajama Lady" when I walked 20 miles in my pink ribbon pajamas after all my clothes were drenched in a campground flood!

But the best part of having breast cancer is meeting all the wonderful women, none of whom chose to belong to this club, and the loving people who support them.
That's what gets me through the anxiety of annual mammograms, breast MRI's , doctor visits and tumor marker tests: The spirit of those who thrive and don't just survive.
As a member of the Young Survival Coalition- women diagnosed with breast cancer under age 40- I am honored and proud to be invited to join Amazon Thunder and its beautiful warriors in this adventure.

Please know that your donation and your generosity will help the more than 250,000 women in the United States under the age of 45 living with breast cancer access the support they need.

On this ride and in my heart, are my husband Oscar- whose love, patience and humor over the last 14 years has been my mainstay- and my best friend Kathy - in nearly 20 years she has shown me time and again the unselfish nature of true friendship.
I could not have made this journey without Oscar's unwavering encouragement and Kathy's gift of frequent flier miles!

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