Breast cancer survivor takes leading role in Race for the Cure
This year’s Susan G. Komen Houston Race for the Cure is back in person, and its executive council will be led by a breast cancer survivor and resident of The Woodlands.
Along with holding the title of senior vice president, finance and treasury for CenterPoint Energy, Stacey Peterson now holds the title of executive leader chair for this year’s Race for the Cure on Oct. 2.
Peterson became involved with the Race for the Cure Leadership Council this past summer through her work at CenterPoint, which has its own corporate team raising money for the race and is a sponsor. Peterson is a breast cancer survivor herself and was interested in getting involved.
“It just seemed like a good fit to get involved and give back,” Peterson said.
In 2019, a month after she turned 40, Peterson went to get a mammogram. While the appointment was uneventful, she was called back to the doctor’s office for a biopsy of something in her left axilla area and an adjacent lymph node.
“At the time, I was working. I had three young kids. I’ve always lived an active lifestyle, I was a runner, and when I turned 40 years old, I thought everything was great. I went in for my routine mammogram that most women do at 40 years old,” she said. “I found out I had cancer, it was already stage 2.”
She was shocked. She had no indications before getting her mammogram that anything was wrong and expected it to be a routine health screening. For her, this shows just how important it is for people to keep getting screened. She had started getting mammograms at 35 and suspected nothing.
The very next month, she started chemo. She would finish 16 rounds by March 2020. She had surgery in April 2020, before starting 33 radiation treatments, ending with another surgery in August of last year.
“I’m on the other side of it now,” she said. “I think I’ve grown a lot and learned a lot through that experience.”
While she takes the leadership position of the race’s board, this is not Peterson’s first time being involved in the race. Before her diagnosis in 2019, she and her mother and sister ran the race together. Being involved in the planning side of the race this year is a humbling experience, Peterson said.
Participating in the race as a survivor is different than participating before her diagnosis. She’s not the same person she was before her cancer journey. She took a year off of work to get treatment, and when she returned to her job, she felt like she was getting back to the old her, but a little different, and she wanted to give back in a meaningful way.
“(Susan G. Komen) brings a sense of community that is really important, especially as someone either going through a cancer journey or someone who is a survivor. It’s that common thread that while all of our stories are a little bit different, all of our experiences are a little bit different, there’s a common thread that unites all of us,” Peterson said. “I can’t wait to get to the race and do it in person and see all of these other people and really unite with them.”
Peterson’s commitment to the board will last several years. But even after she is done with her place on the board, she plans on staying involved with the Susan G. Komen organization and the effort to find a cure for breast cancer.