Two Southwest Virginia Ladies Walking For A Cause

ABINGDON, Va. – A lot of people might be out walking in the autumn sunshine, but two Southwest Virginia ladies are walking for a cause.
Madeline Card, of Abingdon, and Fredia Helbert, of Coeburn, have been training together since April to participate in a three-day, 60-mile walk to raise money for breast cancer research.
“We have walked hundreds of miles to get ready for this,” said Card, a 57-year-old registered nurse who lost her mother-in-law to breast cancer in 1997.
“This has been a huge undertaking, a lot bigger than we ever expected it to be,” Card said. “But … it’s just something that has been on my mind for several years and it’s just one of those things that you just say, ‘I’m going to do it,’ and you decide to do it.”
Each of them must raise $2,300 to participate in the Breast Cancer 3-Day, which benefits the Susan G. Komen for the Cure and takes place every year in 15 cities around the United States. Card and Helbert plan to be part of the walk later this month in Atlanta, where Jenne Fromm, national spokesperson for the Breast Cancer 3-Day said more then 3,400 walkers participated last year.
Even more are registered this year.
“Over the course of that 20 miles each day, they really do make special connections and bonds, and they really create this … moving monument to courage and to hope,” Fromm said by telephone this week. “We’ll have people out there with pink feather boas and pink tutus … it’s crazy stuff that you see.”
The three-day event traverses several city streets, and includes a group of motorcycle-riding volunteers who help to ensure the walk progresses smoothly. Even the motorcyclists get into the act, typically decking out in the colors of the event – some even wearing pink chaps and coconut bras.
What better way to raise money and awareness to fight breast cancer, Fromm said, adding that the illness strikes one in eight women.
“With the downturn in the economy, of course it’s affected us like it’s affected everyone else, but I’ll tell you what it hasn’t impacted: people’s passion or willingness to be involved,” Fromm said. “The cures are, in many ways, right around the corner, and I think we’re getting closer all the time, and we’ve got to get that money raised to do that research because that’s how it’s going to happen.”
Helbert, who is 55 and has been training for the upcoming event by walking around Southwest Virginia, is an audiologist who lost her mother to breast cancer years ago.
“I think it’s just a statement that we have been blessed enough to be able to do this and make that stand for many people that couldn’t,” Helbert said.
“Most everybody knows someone who’s had breast cancer,” Helbert said. “I think from our own experience it’s not a death sentence like it was before. There’s hope, and in our lifetimes we’ve seen hope happen, so I think that it’s possible that there’s a cure in sight.”
She said those who are unable to walk with them can donate to the cause or, if nothing else, pray.
“Prayer is a wonderful thing that, hand-in-hand with research, then certainly lots of miracles can occur,” Helbert said. “Pray for the people who are suffering from breast cancer, for the doctors, for all of the medical community that is treating them, and also for the walkers.”
Fromm said watching people log months of training for this event should be inspiration for anyone to get off the couch.
“These ladies are … not content to sit back idly and just watch breast cancer pick off their loved ones one by one, and they’re going to get up and do something amazingly challenging and amazingly empowering,” Fromm said. “Seeing them walking up and down the street getting ready for this, I guess it would motivate me to want to get up and do something too.”

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