Kathie Bieritz, a teacher from Montgomery, Illinois, has lived a very fitness-based lifestyle. As a person who loved to move, she would exercise every day by going on runs, lifting weights, or doing yoga. That is until she discovered that she had Stage 1a Invasive Ductal Carcinoma Breast Cancer. Yet, even despite such life-changing news, she would not let breast cancer get in the way of her passion for movement.
The determination to “continue to move as long as I can” is the mindset that Kathie brought to the table every day, and while her chemo treatments left her with less stamina than before her diagnosis, she still found a way to get moving, particularly by running three times per week and walking four times per week. Even during her treatment, Kathie would continue to find ways to stay active, believing “that if I stopped moving, I would slip into a place I did not want to go.” Two days after surgeries, Kathie would be right back up and walking once again, never letting breast cancer get the best of her.
Sharing the low points in her experience with cancer, the most difficult being “not being able to sleep for three days after each chemo session due to the steroids. I’m sure they did their job, but being unable to sleep was awful. Generally, I did not feel like myself either, which was difficult to explain to people.”
Fitz connected with Kathie throughout her treatment and was elated to run her across the DC Super Hero Run finish line!
While her commitment to movement was important, Kathie also found something else to help her through the experience with cancer: support and encouragement through Facebook. In particular, she had a conversation with a follower of her page; “one of those Facebook followers contacted me to let me know that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer but felt that she could get through it because of all that I shared during my journey. Being able to share my story to help others is something I will do for the rest of my life.”
Today, Kathie is cancer free and is still teaching, hoping to do so for many more years. Additionally, she is continuing to share her story and be someone who encourages other women fighting against breast cancer. When people ask if she had ever considered asking, “Why me?” she believes the better question to ask is, “Why not me?” Kathie truly believed that there was no one she would rather have been diagnosed than herself, all thanks to Kathie’s belief in movement, quoting, “These bodies we live in are amazing, and when they are in shape, I think they are better able to react to health crises.”
Photos used with permission of Kathleen Bieritz
