On Thanksgiving 2012, Sharon’s mom, Terry, had a bad cold she just couldn’t shake. As this was peak respiratory virus season, she wrote off her symptoms as just seasonal illness. That was until a few weeks later when her struggle to breathe landed her in the emergency room. After looking at her scans, her doctors kept asking about her smoking history. “It was odd, my mom has never smoked and doesn’t allow smoking in her house, but the doctors kept asking if she was sure. A few days later they diagnosed her with stage IV lung cancer,” Sharon explained.
About eight months before, heart palpitations from stress at work had also put Terry in the hospital. A chest X-ray they did during that visit didn’t reveal any abnormalities, so this lung cancer diagnosis came as a major shock to Sharon and her family. They all supported Terry as she began her chemotherapy in January of the next year. Her once every other week and then once every three weeks treatments seemed to keep her cancer at bay for a time. That is until November when a bad scan had her doctors return to once every other week treatment. On June 4, 2014, things took a turn and Terry ended up in a coma. A few hours after being admitted, she was gone.
Walking for Awareness and Change
Terry’s family was devastated. After their mother’s passing, Sharon’s brother found a LUNG FORCE Walk in their area. The family decided they wanted to participate in honor of Terry, who inspired their team’s name. “I’ve really embraced it because, even though it can’t bring my mom back, maybe I can help someone else escape a similar fate,” Sharon said. Team Terry has been a leading fundraising group at the New Jersey Walk every year since then.
Unlike some people who may be nervous to ask for donations, Sharon is a saleswoman, so she began knocking on doors. “I have been walking our road to collect donations for years now, people expect it. I just say, ‘It’s that time of year again,’ and most people donate every year.” Since 2014, Team Terry has fundraised almost $100,000 for lung cancer research.
She has also encouraged her friends and neighbors to participate in the event. She is proud that a core group of about 22 walkers return every year, with some years the team including as many as 32 people. Some people have even walked virtually if they were not able to make it to the in-person event. Her team is so determined that in 2023, when it down poured rain the entire time, Sharon and 12 other die-hard teammates walked in the wind and the rain. “As long as I am breathing, I am going to keep on at it, nothing is going to stop me. It is just a cause I really believe in,” she said.
Sharon loves attending the events and finds the camaraderie to be unparallelled. She has now been to so many events she recognizes and looks forward to seeing certain people every year. “You see certain teams every year and you get to know those people. But it is also a time to hang out with people on my team who I may not see very often,” Sharon said.
Terry’s memory continues to fuel Sharon’s passion, as she will be the first to admit. “There are so many different causes to support, and it took my mom getting sick for me to see just how important this cause is,” Sharon explained. It is her mother’s memory that continues to fuel her passion for research and the reason she will be out raising donations every year. “Anyone can get lung cancer, not just people who smoke. That’s why the research is so important, to try and figure out why people get this and save others from the pain my family has experienced.”
Blog last updated: December 10, 2024
