Projo Fitness Blog

Debra Cole's Team Ascend

In a celebration of life, breast cancer survivor Debra Cole, 53, of West Greenwich will attempt to summit the 14,162-foot Mt. Shasta in Northern California this week. It is the second highest peak in the Cascades.

Diagnosed in 2005, Cole considers every day to be a gift and another opportunity to educate people about breast cancer. Over the weekend, she was scheduled to join a team of 28 other survivors and people touched by breast cancer in attempting to summit the mountain with the Breast Cancer Fund's Climb Against the Odds, a mountain expedition for breast cancer prevention.

Cole has actively been involved in breast cancer advocacy, mentoring and support throughout Rhode Island and on a national level since 2005. As a mother of two daughters, she has become especially passionate about preventing the disease by identifying and eliminating known environmental causes of breast cancer, including toxic chemicals found in our everyday environment.

"I can not sit back and hope someone else will do something about the epidemic of breast cancer, she said. I need to do whatever I can, for as long as I can so that my own daughters will never have to hear the words, 'you have breast cancer.' This is
not just my battle; this is a battle for us all."

 Tags  breast cancer climber RI

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