Breast cancer survivor pays it forward by making strides

CLEARWATER Fla - Kate Daley loves her trips to Key West. Not only is it a favorite travel spot for her, it's also a place where the breast cancer survivor gives back to the American Cancer Society. She has her own Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk to raise donations to fund research and programs that help patients.

"I have a fundraising page. I set a goal of $3,000 every year. My team name is Kate's Conchs and a conch is someone who is born in Key West, which I wasn't, but I'm the team. It's just me. I start at the Southernmost Point. It's a little over two miles and I have a hat with all sorts of Hard Rock pins on it for breast cancer awareness. One year when I stopped for a refreshment the bartender gave me my tip back and said here put this in your donations so that was memorable", said Daley.

The American Cancer Society was a valuable resource for Daley when she went through her own battle back in 2012. 

"I also had kind of an unusual type of breast cancer, triple negative breast cancer, so I had all this information and I wanted to make sure I had the correct information, so American Cancer became my go-to site and I got a lot of good information, so I could talk to the doctors too. My positive attitude helped me a lot. I had some fairly serious chemo, and I was never really sick. I never missed any work," said Daley.

She didn't have a bell to ring at the time for her last chemo treatment, so she marked the moment in another way. 

"I took a picture of the chemo infusion pump with the word 'end' on it", said Daley.

With her walks, Daley is paying it forward to the American Cancer Society. She just had another walk in Key West. 

"They were so helpful to me during my treatment and my surgeries, I wanted to give back, so I thought Making Strides was a good way to do that", said Daley.

She said what helped her get through her battle was keeping this in mind. 

"You can't control what's happening to you. You can control how you react to it," said Daley.

For information about participating in the Making Strides walks or donating to the American Cancer Society, visit www.makingstrideswalk.org/tampa.

For more information about Daley’s fundraising page with the American Cancer Society, visit https://secure.acsevents.org/site/STR?fr_id=102945&pg=personal&px=1688457.