Y-Us? A family's fight with cancer

It's a family trait that Joanne Curran hopes won't get passed along.

Curran, her mother, grandmother and two aunts have all had to battle breast cancer. Her cousin, Teri Hallet, died from it at age 37.

Three generations have survived the disease, but, as a recent scare reminded her, Curran knows it won't necessarily stay away. Her aunt, Joan Miles, is going through her second round of breast cancer treatment.

For four years, Curran, 48, has walked in Y-ME's annual Mother's Day race -- and hopes that eventually it'll mean her sister and 25-year-old daughter won't have to go through the ordeal.

"I harp on them every year to get a mammogram," she said.

Curran's team, which consists of many of her family members, will return today to Grant Park in Chicago for the Race to Empower, which attracts 35,000 walkers, runners and volunteers. They will all wear T-shirts with Hallet's name on them.

Each year, Curran's team has raised an increasing amount of money, going past $19,000 this year. The money goes to programs and services for those touched by breast cancer, through Y-ME.

The Chicago-based Y-ME organization, announced Friday -- its 30th anniversary -- it will change its name to Breast Cancer Network of Strength.

Curran turned to the group for help after she was diagnosed five years ago. She was divorced and didn't have insurance.

"I went through Y-ME and got help through there," she said. "If it wasn't for these programs, a lot of people like us would probably be pushed to the wayside."

She said the organization offered her support groups and pointed her in the right direction when she worried about how to pay for her treatments.

"Of course my family was my rock, but you need people to help with the financial end," she said.

'I just knew'

Curran felt an itch one day when she was 43 years old. She found the lump.

"I figured I was invincible," she said. "I had not gone for a mammogram for two years."

Curran went to work anyway, but her boss could tell there was something wrong with her and sent her home.

"I just knew. My mother had gone through it, and I had a feeling that there was something," she said.

Her mother was the first person she called to get advice and support.

"It kind of just floors you when you first hear it," said Peggy Wykowski, Curran's mother. "You just feel like, what's happening here?"

After her chemotherapy and lumpectomy, Curran and her co-workers held a fund-raiser for Y-ME at Bogies, the bar where she works in Mount Prospect.

"The first year I think we raised $3,000," she said. "We had a good time; we had a pajama party."

The parties at Bogie's continued. The next year they raised $6,000 and then $17,000 last year.

"This year was phenomenal," Curran said. "We had a huge pink party. We raised $10,500 just there."

She said her co-workers provided her with the utmost support when she was going through her treatments.

The day she lost her hair, she couldn't bring herself to go into work. That was one of the few days she took off for her illness.

"My boss has been great to me," she said. "Everybody I worked with was there for me."

Wykowski said she's seen her daughter get more and more involved with Y-ME, and is thankful to the group for helping Curran when she needed it.

"It really gives her a feeling of hope," she said. "They were so good to her."

If you go

Y-ME's 17th annual Race to Empower on Sunday in Grant Park, downtown Chicago.

What: Do a 1- or 3-mile walk or the United 5K

When:Registration opens 6:30 a.m.; race starts 8 a.m.

Call: (877) YME-RACE

Visit: www.y-me.org; click "events" and then "Chicago" in drop-down box.