Foot Soldiers
Stories From the Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk
The Book
Introduction:
By all outward measures, our family was living happily ever after. My husband, Andy, and I had been married for 21 years. He was a defense attorney and I was a pathologist. We were rearing two outgoing, athletic children—a daughter, 15, and a son, 12—who were making all As and saying that they wanted to study law and medicine. Our nice house was in a nice Texas neighborhood, which was near the nice church that we regularly attended. The days of student loans, old Volkswagens, and grungy apartments were long past. Instead, our family was in a wide, grassy place, full of sunshine and possibilities. My metaphor, though, was about to be hit by a train.
Before daybreak on June 4, 1997, we were awakened by someone ringing the doorbell of our rented condominium on South Padre Island. We had arrived past my parents' bedtime the previous night, so I had not yet called to tell them our direct phone number. (Those were the days before ubiquitous cell phones.) The person at the door was a security guard. Among his duties was answering the front desk telephone between 11 PM and 6 AM. He asked if I was Dr. Douglas. When I nodded, he said, "You need to call your mother. Here's the phone number."...
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Reviews:
"Douglas, author and breast cancer survivor, chronicles the 600 miles she has covered at 10 Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk events, sharing stories of hope and loss from friends made along the way. She reveals her own battle with the disease and provides perspectives of women and men who have been affected by it. Each story reveals how individuals have coped with different stages and forms of breast cancer."
Lydia Fong, MAMM magazine
"Divided into 10 chapters, each chapter representing a different 3-Day city where Douglas walked, she tells the breast cancer story through interviews with other participants and cancer survivors she meets at each of the events. At the end of each chapter is a montage of photographs taken of those who shared their stories. Layered in between, in short passages, Deborah's own story also emerges. The result is a deeply moving and compelling work of literature that also happens to be of vital medical importance."
Cindy Bonner, Victoria Advocate
"[Douglas] is no stranger to cancer, having lost her father in 1998 from a malignant brain tumor, her husband in 1999 to colon cancer, and being diagnosed herself in 2001 with breast cancer. After being declared cancer-free after treatment, she decided in 2004 to prove to herself how fit she was by tackling the 600-mile walk."
Lorene Denney, Burnet Bulletin