Meet the Team - Heidi Sue

What is your "real life" job?
I am a registered nurse and work at United Hospital in the Birth Center taking care of pregnant women hospitalized for a portion of their pregnancy, laboring women, and postpartum women and their new babies. I LOVE IT!!! It's a rewarding job and I can work just every other weekend so flexible enough that I can still hang out with Maddox every day.

Why did you decide to participate in the Breast Cancer 3-Day?
Well, in 2007 just after I delivered Maddox, my mom decided to walk and everyone knows I'm a joiner and love to be involved, so I immediately signed up and never looked back. It's been such an amazing experience to be involved with such a great cause and organization that goes so far above and beyond my every day life.

Do you have a personal connection to breast cancer?
Yes, my mom, Michelle, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006. Prior to that I sort of felt like my family was invincible to so many things. This was the first time I think we felt so vulnerable and after my grandpa was diagnosed with lung cancer and my grandma had her stroke and we lost both of them so tragically we knew that we needed to pick up the pieces and do something that truly empowered us as individuals and as a family. Now my mom is now a 3 year survivor and we've been working together as a family for this amazing cause each and every year since.

What are you most looking forward to in participating?
I am so ecstatic to be walking with my entire immediate family this year! I also will be walking with 2 of my closest friends at work and am so thankful to be surrounded with such amazing people in every aspect of my life. All of us put together make quite a powerful team.

What will be your biggest challenge in participating?
Definitely raising the money is our first challenge because none of us would be able to walk without it and more importantly the more we raise the more we help the fight against breast cancer and save lives. I also am challenged to get into shape and get healthy which is a great side benefit.

What do you hope to gain from this experience?
That I will never have to sit my children down and tell them that "I have breast cancer". That we will help fund the fight to find the cure and prevent the pain that so many young families suffer from. It is for the children that have to grow up without their gifted, talented, loving, beautiful mothers, the husbands that long for their wives, the friends that just want one more chance to enjoy the company of their best friend and for the men who suffer from breast cancer too.