| The first message that she was dying came by | | | | her energetic and insistent attitude, she’s |
| bicycle. Sean Patrick rode up the steep trail on | | | | penetrated the wall of scientific jargon to understand |
| Smuggler Mountain, Aspen, Colorado, on a cool, pre-fall | | | | her disease. What she learned inspired her to reach |
| day in 1995. She had spent many summer afternoons | | | | out to others. |
| biking through the Aspen groves, enjoying the late sun | | | | Since its inception, she says, the foundation has |
| shining patchwork on the trail. Normally energized from | | | | provided doctors with research grants; provided seed |
| the strenuous workout and her daily 15- to 22-mile | | | | grants to a number of small communities, which have |
| rides, Patrick was shocked when she became so out | | | | allowed them to offer immediate assistance to aid |
| of breath that she had to get off the bike to avoid | | | | patients with travel, hotel rooms, and childcare while |
| throwing up. | | | | they are undergoing treatment; and established |
| “It was radical,” she says. “I | | | | awareness programs throughout the United States. |
| couldn’t get up.” At first she thought she | | | | Patrick has also convinced thousands of women and |
| had over trained or suffered from exhaustion from too | | | | men to work with her. Among those women are |
| much traveling. Confirming her ideas, Patrick’s | | | | famous alpinist Kitty Calhoun and Salt Lake City, Utah, |
| doctor suggested that she slow down and get a | | | | resident Hillary Silberman. Both women worked with |
| hobby. “If you can’t’ slow | | | | Patrick to create a video highlighting the HERA |
| down,” he said to her, “I can always give | | | | Foundation and ovarian cancer. |
| you a prescription for Valium.” | | | | According to Silberman, making the video and |
| After weeks of still not being able to ride or rock | | | | volunteering for HERA changed her life. |
| climb—her favorite sport—Patrick returned to | | | | Silberman’s mother died in 2003 from ovarian |
| her doctor, who did blood work, but found nothing | | | | cancer, and she says that she felt helpless in the face |
| obviously wrong. He told her not to worry. It | | | | of her mother’s illness. “My involvement |
| wasn’t until 1997 that she finally found out that | | | | with HERA gave me the tools to work with to deal |
| she had a rare form of ovarian cancer called | | | | with my mother’s death as well as people to |
| Micropapillary Serous Carcinoma. After the late | | | | connect with who understand where I’m coming |
| discovery, Patrick endured seven surgeries and, at one | | | | from.” |
| point in 2001 after being flown to a hospital via flight for | | | | By being involved and being proactive, Silberman |
| life, doctors told her she wouldn’t live past six | | | | explains, she has done something positive for others |
| weeks. | | | | by presenting them with information. “I have also |
| Patrick did live, and she says, in large part it was due | | | | done something positive for myself by beginning to |
| to her experiences in the mountains. She was strong | | | | think about what I needed to do to protect myself and |
| from regularly biking and lifting weights, and she was | | | | get early detection.” |
| mentally balanced after decades of rock climbing. The | | | | With cancer affecting most of the female members |
| wilderness and leadership skills she gleaned in places | | | | of her family, Silberman is at a high risk for contracting |
| like the Rocky Mountains prepared her for the | | | | the disease, although she doesn’t currently have |
| greatest challenge of her life—surviving that | | | | it. Her nurse practitioner tried to convince her not to |
| six-week ordeal in the hospital. | | | | worry, but Patrick and the Climb for Life events |
| While on her deathbed in the ICU, a doctor inserted a | | | | convinced Silberman to follow through on her own to |
| blood gas line in her body, and it hurt like hell, she says. | | | | seek the medical services she needs for early |
| “I snapped and got angry, and at that moment I | | | | detection. “The feeling of strength, perseverance |
| came back into my body.” She likens the feeling | | | | and tenaciousness that climbing engenders made me |
| to being really scared after a rock climbing fall or when | | | | not give up when professionals were telling me not to |
| she has been stuck on the side of a mountain on a | | | | worry.” |
| ledge in a thunderstorm. “I would get scared and | | | | As with most female-specific diseases, says Patrick, |
| then angry, and that would act as a catalyst to get | | | | ovarian cancer has typically been ignored by the |
| moving. I knew if I did not keep moving in the face of | | | | medical industry. Despite the fact that it kills women of |
| my disease that I would not make it.” | | | | all ages and more women than all the other |
| Since her extraordinary recovery six years ago, | | | | gynecological cancers combined, many doctors are |
| Patrick continues to move rapidly forward. Not only | | | | ignorant of its symptoms and think the disease affects |
| does she still climb and play in the mountains—she | | | | only the elderly. This, explains Patrick, partially results |
| topped out on the Grand Teton after 22 hours of | | | | from the medical field’s traditional focus on men |
| climbing through blizzard conditions in 2004—but | | | | and male-specific diseases. |
| she also decided to make it her mission to raise | | | | For example, the Agency for Healthcare Research |
| awareness and money for the cancer that almost | | | | and Quality found that “although coronary heart |
| killed her. “My life’s goal is to prevent as | | | | disease (CHD) causes more than 250,000 deaths in |
| many women as possible from going through what I | | | | women each year, much of the research in the last 20 |
| experienced,” she says. | | | | years on CHD has either excluded women entirely or |
| In the last few years Patrick has helped create an | | | | included only limited numbers of women.” |
| ovarian cancer website for the Johns Hopkins Medical | | | | Additionally, doctors treat women different than men in |
| Institute, and she regularly travels around the country | | | | hospitals. According to a fall 2001 study published in the |
| on speaking engagements. Patrick’s crowning | | | | Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics, |
| achievement is the non-profit HERA Foundation | | | | “women’s pain reports are taken less |
| (Health, Empowerment, Research, Advocacy), which | | | | seriously than men’s, and women receive less |
| she created in 2002. She organizes Climb For Life | | | | aggressive treatment than men for their pain.” |
| events around the country and in Mexico, which bring | | | | Also, women were “more likely to have their pain |
| women and men together to rock climb, do yoga, | | | | reports discounted as ‘emotional’ and |
| watch climbing slide shows and films, and, most | | | | therefore, ‘not real.’” |
| importantly, learn about and raise money for ovarian | | | | “I have had several experiences with this kind of |
| cancer. | | | | dismissive treatment by both male and female |
| Friend and Climb for Life volunteer, Deanne Pranke | | | | doctors,” says Patrick. “It is a flaw in how |
| says that Patrick’s climbing events have been | | | | medicine is taught—women complain, men |
| incredibly inspirational for thousands of people. | | | | don’t, so they take men’s complaints more |
| “Sean has brought ovarian cancer out in the | | | | seriously. To get the best treatment, you have to find |
| open and empowered many women such as myself | | | | a doctor—male or female (one is not better than |
| to take charge of our health and educate our loved | | | | another in being more empathetic)—that sees you |
| ones and friends about this kind of cancer.” | | | | as a person and not a statistical group.” |
| Adds Patrick, “The need for perseverance | | | | Although Patrick seeks to change the way doctors |
| forces women to reach deep inside themselves when | | | | view ovarian cancer and other women-specific |
| they feel like they can’t go further. The lessons | | | | diseases, she believes it’s more imperative to |
| you learn from climbing and taking care of yourself in | | | | encourage women to take control of their own health. |
| the wilderness translate into successful life strategies | | | | Ovarian cancer is not a silent killer, she says, “the |
| on a day to day basis.” In fact, Patrick has never | | | | disease has symptoms, and it’s important that |
| seen a sport as empowering as climbing is for women. | | | | women are made aware of what they are. Women |
| “Often when I’ve seen women get to the | | | | who go to the doctor with gastrointestinal symptoms |
| top of a route in the gym, the transformation on their | | | | must make sure that ovarian cancer is ruled out.” |
| face is phenomenal,” she explains. | | | | Through climbing, Patrick believes that women can be |
| Sean Patrick’s wide smile greets the climbers as | | | | taught to stand up for themselves. Not only do these |
| they stream into the third-floor room of REI Denver, | | | | events teach women self-reliance, but they are also |
| spring 2004. Running her hand through a shock of | | | | “places where we can turn our passion for |
| white blonde hair, she says she’s nervous when | | | | climbing into a passion for making a difference.” |
| speaking publicly, but her voice is steady and vibrant as | | | | “I think success in climbing no matter what level |
| she talks about ovarian cancer and the HERA Climb | | | | you climb at—5.4 to 5.14—translates to |
| for Life REI Road Tour (now in its third year), | | | | successful life strategies,” Patrick says. “I |
| sponsored by REI, Black Diamond, and HERA. She | | | | want women who are empowered by the mountains |
| speaks to the audience with the fluency of someone | | | | to take this back into everyday life, and as it relates to |
| who possesses a vast knowledge of the disease and | | | | the medical community, I want them to trust their |
| the politics surrounding it. | | | | intuition despite their doctor’s contention that they |
| After her diagnosis, Patrick became a “research | | | | may not have a problem. In climbing and in life, trust |
| maven,” reading everything she could find on the | | | | yourself. |
| subject and hounding doctors all over the country. With | | | | |