Julie Layton knew she had to do more than drop off home-cooked meals. In just two years, she’s seen three close friends fight for their lives. Their enemy is breast cancer.
The Snohomish woman decided to take a big step. In her friends’ honor, Layton organized a team to walk in Sunday’s Susan G. Komen Puget Sound Race for the Cure, which starts at Seattle Center.
Her group is called Valiant &Victorious.
“That’s what these women are,” said Layton, 45.
Layton’s goals were to recruit 20 team members and raise about $1,000. She’s now astounded at what community support and generosity can do. As of Thursday, her team was listed as the top fundraiser in the “friends and family” category for the Komen Puget Sound event, with a whopping $18,109.27 to be donated to the cause.
About 85 Valiant &Victorious members plan to walk, and more than 40 others are supporters who can’t be there for the event.
Now in its 17th year, the Seattle race aims to raise $1.7 million. It’s one of many Komen events around the country. All net proceeds are used for breast cancer research, education, screening and treatment. More than 15,000 runners or walkers are expected to make the 5-kilometer loop from Seattle Center through downtown and back.
The Susan G. Komen Foundation was founded in Texas by Nancy Goodman Brinker, whose sister died of breast cancer in 1980. Seeing her friends’ struggles and knowing that medical advances are keys to survival, Layton was also spurred to act.
A mother of four — her children are ages 11, 13, 21 and 25 — she works as a nurse in a psychiatric unit at Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Seattle. Add her commute from Snohomish and helping as a team mom for her daughter’s basketball team, and Layton isn’t exactly luxuriating in spare time.
Still, she and another friend decided to organize the walking team. “It just wasn’t enough to bring dinners,” Layton said.
Layton had never known anyone close to her who’d had cancer before her friend Micheala was diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago. Then on July 1, 2009, her friend Holly Bergeson discovered she had breast cancer, just a year after Bergeson’s mother had battled the disease.
“Holly is in her 30s,” Layton said of her friend, who was treated with surgery and chemotherapy.
And in January, Layton’s 41-year-old friend Victoria, who’d had a baby in November 2009, found a lump while breast-feeding. She has finished one round of chemotherapy and expects to have more, Layton said.
The team’s funds came from two large donations, a community garage sale held at First Presbyterian Church of Snohomish, many smaller gifts and proceeds from home-baked cookie sales. Layton baked butter cookies in the shape of the pink cause ribbon, added frosting, and wrapped them in plastic. She and friends took baskets of cookies to work and gathered donations.
In April, they raised their Valiant &Victorious profile by walking in the Snohomish Easter Parade.
Quilceda Creek Vintners provided the team’s pink T-shirts, and people Layton didn’t even know stopped by the group’s garage sale to donate items.
“It’s been a great experience,” Layton said. “People’s generosity is heartwarming.”
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460, muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
Race for the Cure
The Susan G. Komen Puget Sound Race for the Cure, a 5-kilometer fundraising run and walk to help fight breast cancer, is Sunday at Seattle Center. On-site registration starts at 7 a.m., with events starting between 8 a.m. and 9:15 a.m. Information: www.komenpugetsound.org.
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