September 3, 2003

Driven to find cancer cure

BMW Ultimate Drive raises money for Susan G. Komen Foundation

By Carol South
Herald contributing writer

      Taking a spin around Traverse City Tuesday helped researchers bring a cure for breast cancer one step closer.
      The seventh annual Ultimate Drive was in town Tuesday offering residents a chance to drive a brand new BMW 745Li and raise a dollar for every mile they drove on the six-mile route. The event was sponsored by BMW and held at the BMW dealership in the Grand Traverse Auto complex.
      Local organizers of the event hoped to match previous year's totals of around $5,000 for the day. The money raised by the Ultimate Drive goes to the Susan G. Komen Foundation for research to battle a disease that affects one in every eight women. In the past six years, local drivers have raised $30,000 for the foundation.
      The Ultimate Drive is a nationwide fund-raiser that visits more than 200 cities between April and October. Each year, drivers clock more than a million miles on the two touring Ultimate Drive cars, raising a total of $6 million dollars by 2002. All drivers also sign the car and the story of its travels around the country lines the outside body panels.
      BMW sponsors the Ultimate Drive every year hoping that one day it will be obsolete.
      "Basically, we're hoping that this program doesn't come back next year because a cure is found," said John Sullivan, a field marketing manager for BMW based in Schaumburg, Ill. "Maybe we'd return for a victory tour."
      Each community that hosts an Ultimate Drive designates a local hero, a breast cancer survivor who serves as spokesperson for the event. Barbara Cunningham of Traverse City is this year's local hero and camped out at the dealership Tuesday to meet, greet and share her story.
      A breast cancer survivor for three years, Cunningham is one of a growing number younger women stricken with breast cancer. Diagnosed at age 37, she had surgery, reconstruction, six months of chemotherapy and six weeks of radiation. A mother of two young children, her diagnosis came just after she finished nursing her daughter, then a year old.
      "My doctor, who is a woman, recommended a mammogram after I was done nursing," recalled Cunningham, a vibrant, self-confident woman who is a stay-at-home mom and devoted volunteer helping other women with breast cancer.
      That test was clear - a definitive mammogram is difficult in younger women - but pain in one breast six months later had her back for more tests. Cunningham learned she had an aggressive form of breast cancer that had metastasized to her lymph system. Suddenly, with two children under the age of four, she had a disease that is the number one killer of women ages 35-45.
      "I always thought of it as a disease that affects women past menopause," Cunningham recalled.
      Cheryl Snyder of Traverse City, a past local hero, was also on hand Tuesday to help with the Ultimate Drive. A breast cancer survivor who is 12 years out from her diagnosis, Snyder is a volunteer with the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Working with Cunningham for the day, the two shared a strong bond.
      "That's what's kind of kept me going is helping the newly diagnosed gals," said Snyder, who has also volunteered with Munson's Navigator program for people newly diagnosed with breast cancer. "When you're diagnosed, there's such a feeling of loneliness but at the support group others can finish my sentences and you learn that there is life beyond breast cancer."
      The peer-to-peer support was crucial to Cunningham, who has also become a Navigator program volunteer. She noted that in addition to support, the information from other survivors and the American Cancer Society helped her stay informed throughout her diagnosis and treatment.
      "Knowledge is power and with this kind of a disease, there is such a loss of control," said Cunningham, who returns every three months for tests.
      A high energy person, driving a BMW is not the only way Cunningham helps fight breast cancer. She also ran in the 5K Race for the Cure in Detroit last spring, another fund-raiser for the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
      "I came in fifth of all the survivors and next year my goal is to come in third," she said.