Excerpt: Peggy's Spirit

A Beacon family walks in memory of their mother and in hope for the future

“The cure will be found. I know it's going to happen, and I'm going to be there to see it—God willing.”—Mike McElduff

Peggy McElduff was born in 1925, the youngest of 10 siblings. Her daughter Kathleen Lyons describes her as “always full of life—a wonderful aunt, a special friend, a loving wife, a giving sister, a devoted grandmother and an incredible mom to 11 children.” Peggy was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1968 and survived for 11 years, “which allowed her time to be with all those she loved and leave a little piece of herself for us to cherish and share in our everyday lives.”

No wonder, then, that though Peggy died in 1979, “Peggy’s Spirit” is very much alive. It is embodied in a team of her children, their cousins, and close friends who have devoted untold hours and many thousands of dollars to the fight against breast cancer, a fight they say they will continue until a cure is found.

The team had its genesis in 2000, when daughter Maggie McCann visited the “tent city” at an Avon Breast Cancer 3-Day and was filled with excitement by the event. The idea took wings the next year when Maggie and two of her sisters, Kathleen (Lyons) and Tricia Rothberg, participated as “Peggy’s Spirit” in the Avon Walk in New York. Their older brother, Mike McElduff, the firstborn of Peggy’s eleven children, volunteered at the event, giving tent assignments to the walkers. He was hooked.

“I just loved the people,” says Mike. “They were so vibrant, so excited. Some were pregnant, some were heavyset, but they were all going to walk 60 miles. It was amazing. I decided I had to be around these people.” ”
For the 2002 event in New York, the team expanded to 11 members—including Mike, four of his sisters, one of his nieces, and a number of friends. “Peggy’s Spirit” walked 20 miles the first day, says Mike, and then, when the event was canceled because of bad weather, the team walked on its own the next two days. .
In 2003, Mike represented “Peggy’s Spirit” at the Avon Walks in New York, Boston, and Chicago. He was just hitting his stride. He was there for all six Avon Walks in 2004, accompanied by a growing legion of “Peggy’s Spirit” team members in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. At the final event, in New York, Mike reports that the team swelled to 35 members, including six of Peggy’s daughters, two nieces, a cousin, a daughter-in-law, and “a great bunch of my sisters’ friends.” Other family members served as crew members and volunteers. For the whole year, says Mike, “Peggy’s Spirit” contributed $115,000 to the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer series.

If his commitment seems remarkable, Mike has a simple rationale: “It has to be done, and I’m able to do it.” This is the right fight at the right time, and Mike intends to be part of it. He is also confident that the battle will be won, that the cure is coming, and that when a cure for one cancer is found, “it will explode across the line” and lead to the end of all cancers. Maybe it will be the team of scientists at the American Cancer Society, or “maybe a researcher like I met up in Boston who is working his buns off 16 hours a day all by himself,” says Mike, “but I know it’s going to happen, and I’m going to be there to see it—God willing.”

If his commitment seems remarkable, Mike has a simple rationale: “It has to be done, and I’m able to do it.” This is the right fight at the right time, and Mike intends to be part of it. He is also confident that the battle will be won, that the cure is coming, and that when a cure for one cancer is found, “it will explode across the line” and lead to the end of all cancers. Maybe it will be the team of scientists at the American Cancer Society, or “maybe a researcher like I met up in Boston who is working his buns off 16 hours a day all by himself,” says Mike, “but I know it’s going to happen, and I’m going to be there to see it—God willing.”

By strange coincidence, both Mike and his sister Kathleen had the same unforgettable experience at different 2004 Avon Walk events. He in Chicago and she in New York were among the walkers chosen to wear the special pink “Every Three Minutes” ribbon—with its terrible re-minder that a new breast cancer diagnosis occurs every three minutes. Both consider it one of the most emotion-ally difficult things they’ve ever been asked to do. As Kathleen explains, “I had five sisters with me, a brother, a sister-in-law, cousins, lifelong friends, and the fear of this disease suddenly became so personal. It convinced me that this must come to an end. That’s why we’re doing this—to bring an end to breast cancer.”

The force pushing toward a cure, says Mike, is awareness, and the more people walking at each event, the more awareness is raised. One of Mike’s donors, an oncology nurse, told him of a woman “who walked into the doctor’s office with breasts bruised like rotten oranges.” At that point, says Mike, there was nothing they could do. “Why didn’t she come earlier? Why didn’t she examine herself? So we are walking to wake people up.” The money raised is critical, obviously, but it’s the throngs of people that get the attention. “If I had gone out and raised $11,000 and just walked in one event, the financial impact would have been the same,” he explains, “but the numbers matter just as much. It’s important for us to get out there as often as possible and make ourselves visible.”

As a man walking for a cause so closely associated with women, Mike says he has taken special inspiration from another man he met at the Avon Walk in Boston—a man named Bill, in his late 50s, who had had both knees replaced. When Mike caught up with him on Saturday, Bill was walking alone, near the back of the pack, moving in painfully tiny steps “like a baby who has just found his legs.” Bill told Mike he was determined to walk 13 miles on Saturday and another 13 on Sunday. When Mike asked him why, Bill responded, “My wife and her girlfriend are up there in front of the crowd, and they believe in this cause. And I’m here because I believe in my wife.” Mike says that was all he needed to hear. “Bill reminded me of how so many men are: we believe in our women, but we don’t always show it.” What better way to show it than to take up arms in the battle against breast cancer.

Mike gives thanks that none of his sisters have had breast cancer, and he rejoices even more when he sees them participating in these events. As he points out, all that walking, in and of itself, is a sure path to good health. “You better believe they are taking care of themselves,” he says. “That exercise, the training miles, the stretching—these things have extraordinary benefits. You keep your heart pumping, your muscles toned; you’re doing marvelous things for your body.”

Mike’s own body will be reaping those benefits—in spades. He has signed up to participate in all eight Avon Walks scheduled for 2005. Beyond that, he plans to keep at it “until this disease has been beaten.” Mike says he knows “too many women who have been lost or who are suffering unnecessarily. Women have suffered enough from breast cancer.”

If Mike and his family have anything to do with it, “Peggy’s Spirit” will prevail. .

Excerpted from "Why We Walk: The Inspirational Journey Toward A Cure for Breast Cancer"
Edited by Deb Murphy with photographs by Paula Lerner. Originally published September 2005. Used with permission of Rutledge Hill Press.

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