Stephanie's older cousin, Natalie Lee, who lives in San Francisco, a plane ride away from her home in Arizona, was diagnosed with breast cancer in October of 1995. When Stephanie heard the family news her response was not to shy away from the Natalie but instead get closer to her older cousin. She often made visits to San Francisco to offer comfort to Natalie and her husband, Don. As a result of Stephanie's support and thoughtfulness during Natalie's illness the two women became extremely close as well as each other's best friends and greatest supporters.

Natalie was successfully treated and will celebrate her 5th year as cancer free this year. One would consider that after winning the battle over a life-threatening disease that you would have earned the right to rest on your laurels. Yet, Natalie wanted to give her all to one more challenge. She decided to join 3,000 other participants in the Avon's San Jose - San Francisco Breast Cancer 3-Day. This 3 day, 60-mile walk is a fund-raiser event for breast cancer research and prevention. When she needed a walking partner, whom else but Stephanie offered to come along. In her words, "Of course, there was never a question."

The following is an excerpt from Stephanie's diary accompanied by photos of three exhausting, compelling and challenging days walking from Cupertino, California, through Silicon Valley, over a 900 foot hill and in 50 degree weather to meet loved ones waiting in San Francisco.

The Gang's All Here (from right to left - Natalie, Stephanie, Paul, Gale, Beth and Michelle)
While training for the 3 day, Nat found a walker trainer who she absolutely adored. His name is Paul Baker and he also participated in the 3 day. I was fortunate enough to have experienced two of his walks when I went to visit Nat in SF for a training weekend and met many of the friends she has made during these walks.

What a Groovy Pit-Stop
It was important to arrive at the various stops, Grab'N'Go's, Pit Stops and lunch by the designated time. These stops always had a theme and the crew dressed up to reflect their stop. If you fell too far behind of schedule, you would be expected to wait at a Pit Stop and be shuttled to either lunch or to camp.

Natalie gets her massage
I had never walked 23.5 miles before; 21 miles had been my longest training walk. The first thing we did when we got to camp was walk to the far end to put our names down on the massage list. As this point, my walk was more of a limp. I needed some deep tissue work.

My angel - Alisa
I had hyper extended my knee at the gym 3 1/2 weeks before the walk. After [the massage] I thought I should stop by the physical therapy tent. I was moving worse than before. This is where I met Alisa. She showed me many stretches and told me to put pressure on my leg. I knew I could be stronger. I had to stop questioning myself.

D68 - our lovely home for the next two nights
Dinner consisted of Spaghetti and meat sauce, green beans, garlic bread and cheesecake for dessert. I shoveled everything in as if I was going to a fire, even the green beans, which I hadn't eaten in about 10 years. After dinner, we settled into our tent. next >>