Danville woman gives cancer victims hope

 

Breast cancer survivor started a memorial to 1,500 women who have survived the odds
By Sajid Farooq, STAFF WRITER

 

DANVILLE — Marilyn Axelrod Burchs wall has 1,500 stories to tell.

After surviving a four-year battle with breast cancer, Burch combined forces with other survivors in an effort to give hope to others still struggling with cancer.

In 1994, the Danville resident started the Wall of Hope Breast Cancer Survivors Project, a 200-foot wall with the names and pictures of 1,500 women who have overcome the odds. Now, 11 years after creating the wall, Burch said she had no idea the project would last this long.

I didnt have a long-term plan because as a four-year survivor we dont take life for granted and make long-term plans, she said.

Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer among women in California, with 21,800 new cases and 4,330 deaths expected in 2005, according to Cathy Dawson of theAmerican Cancer Society.

A report released by the American Cancer Society and the California Cancer Registry projects 955 women in Alameda County and 805 in Contra Costa County will be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005, with an expected 185 breast- cancer deaths in Alameda County and 140 in Contra Costa County. Some Bay Area counties have some of the highest rates of breast cancer in the country.

While there is research showing more women in the Bay Area are diagnosed with breast cancer because of more education and access to health care, Burch believes the numbers can be decreased by studying what causes the disease.

"There was no certain type of person that got breast cancer. It was indiscriminate," she said. "That is what convinced me that we need to take on the toxins in our body."

The Wall of Hope Breast Cancer Survivors' Project tries to raise awareness of the disease's pervasiveness and its environmental links. The organization hopes to raise money to fund research into the causes of the disease in addition to treatments.

Burch is president and founder of the Wall of Hope Breast Cancer Survivor's Project, which will soon be moving from Danville to an office space in San Ramon donated by the Diablo Funding Group. She said she has noticed an increasing number of young people being diagnosed with not only breast cancer but cancer in general.

"When teenagers are starting to get cancers of a different type, these people are getting it through the air, the food we eat and the water we drink," she said.

The organization hopes to bring more awareness to the causes of cancer by launching its National Mile of Survival effort. Burch is trying to organize cancer survivors in every state to donate 750 pictures with their stories to be placed on a 100-foot section of the wall. In two to three years, the organization hopes to set up a mile-long Wall of Hope with 37,500 pictures of breast cancer survivors in Washington, D.C.

"If we can have a voice that is national," she said, "we can have a voice that toxins are a huge part of it."

Valley residents will have a chance to preview the national project as a 100-foot section will be on display Saturday at the Alamo Post Office, 160 Alamo Plaza, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Sajid Farooq covers San Ramon and Dublin for the Herald. He can be reached at (925) 416-4813 or sfarooq@angnewspapers.com.

 

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