By Pam McGaffin

It wasn't the cancer that scared Sharon Farber. It was the cure.

The former hospice nurse had seen so many people devastated by chemotherapy that she ignored the lump in her breast for a year and almost avoided treatment after she found out it was cancer.

It wasn't a fear of dying that paralyzed Farber. It was the thought of losing the active, outdoorsy lifestyle that, for her, meant everything. The 62-year-old Puyallup woman was afraid that cancer treatment would so ravage her body that she wouldn't be able to hike, climb and backpack with her husband, John.

"I thought I'd get down to 90 pounds and not be able to walk, much less hike," she says.

Today, a cancer-free Farber is happy to eat her words. While undergoing treatment at Seattle Cancer Treatment and Wellness Center, she was able to maintain her physical lifestyle thanks to smaller, more frequent chemotherapy doses combined with naturopathic oncology and acupuncture.

In fact, she says she's in better shape now than she was before her cancer diagnosis. Which is good because she and John are about to embark on the backpacking trip of a lifetime: a five-month, 2,664-mile journey up the Pacific Crest Trail.

They plan to start April 26 from Campo, a small town near the California-Mexico border, and finish Sept. 20, in Manning Park, Canada. Along the way, Farber plans to hand out pink ribbons and share her story in the hopes of inspiring others to seek early cancer detection and treatment.

She will also be continuing an on-line journal she started in January. To follow her progress, go to www.trailjournals.com/FREEandEZgoing

"In 2006 I thought that my dream to hike the entire 2663.5 miles of the PCT was over when I was diagnosed with breast cancer that had spread to my lymph nodes," Farber writes in her first entry. "Well guess what,a dream is a motivation for healing as strong as chemotherapy and surgery."

Farber - who goes by the pen-name "FREE" as in "free from cancer and free from fear" : wants others to know what she discovered: that cancer treatment has improved and that it's possible to have a life and save it, too.

Her treatment consisted of a mastectomy and 5 1/2 months of chemotherapy. Under the guidance of a naturopathic physician, she also changed to a mostly vegetarian diet heavy in whole grains and vegetables, and took vitamins and supplements to balance her immune system. Acupuncture treatments eased her pain, nausea and other side effects.

During her treatment, she felt relatively normal, she says. In her on-line journal is a photo of her backpacking to Lake George on Mt. Rainier two days after chemo.

"Mrs. Farber's attitude and self motivation coupled with an integrative treatment approach allowed her to maintain her active life with a very positive outcome," says her oncologist Dr. Nick Chen.

The cancer center is supporting Farber's trek with a donation of 2 1/2 months worth of vitamins to help sustain her as she hikes 18 to 25 miles each day. She and John also are planning, preparing and packaging 120 healthy meals, including seven different dinners that will be repeated 23 times. As Farber points out in her journal, that's a lot of veggie couscous.

"What else can I do?" she writes. "My healthy diet kept me well during chemotherapy and I need that even more hiking everyday."

John has supported his wife every step of the way, adopting her diet, going with her to cancer appointments and, of course, training for the most physically - and in some ways mentally - challenging experience of their lives.

"I was afraid I was going to lose her," he says. Now, he says, the worry is gone, and he's "tickled" that she's able to get out there and do what she loves, what they both love.

Hiking the entire Pacific Crest Trail isn't for the faint of heart. (Of the 300 who set out, about 120 never finish.) But Sharon and John are confident. They have their faith and support from family and friends to sustain them, not to mention years of experience and months of preparation and training.

They've already faced the worst and survived. As Sharon notes in her journal, "walking the trail is the easy part."
 

Seattle Cancer Treatment and Wellness Center is an affiliate of Cancer Treatment Centers of America, a network of hospitals that integrate oncology with complementary and natural therapies. For more information and cancer-fighting tips, call (206) FOR HOPE (367-4673) or visit www.seattlecancerwellness.com.

Pam McGaffin of Moore Ink. PR, writes articles about important health, family and community issues for non-profit organizations.