Community Corner

Survivor Rides for Other Young Women with Breast Cancer

Jamie Pleva Nickerson leads a team into the Tour de Pink to raise awareness and money for the Young Survival Coalition. Sponsored by Grape Nuts.




By Lanning Taliaferro


About this column: We’re dedicating the months of April and May to telling the stories of people locally and statewide who have overcome the impossible, affecting positive change in their own lives, or in communities.

Thirty-three-year-old Jamie Pleva Nickerson will be a 4-year survivor of hereditary breast cancer when she and her team ride from Valley Forge to Washington DC this fall.


It's the East Coast's annual Tour de Pink, sponsored by and on behalf of the Young Survival Coalition, an organization dedicated to helping young woman who are at risk for, recently diagnosed, battling or survivors of breast cancer.

Jamie, who recently moved to Danbury from Nanuet, began riding three years ago to raise funds for YSC. 

She talked to Patch about her goals, her inspiration and her dream of success.

What's a goal you're trying to achieve right now?

The Tour de Pink—that’s one goal. I’m doing it with my team, it’s 230-plus miles in  a matter of three days. We’re actually riding from King of Prussia PA to Washington, DC.

It’s a really cool ride and it has the most amazing people attached to it. It’s about the camaraderie: talking to the survivors, to the caregivers of cancer patients, and to people who don’t know anyone with breast cancer but just want to help.

It's about helping young women under 40 who've been diagnosed with breast cancer. It's for the Young Survival Coalition, which is based out of New York. They are working just as hard as they can to ensure no woman diagnosed under 40 faces breast cancer alone, to inform and empower them.

I’m taking on my fourth Tour de Pink; the first year I rode as a 1-year survivor. That one went from Hershey PA to Times Square. 

Now YSC has asked me to be part of their state leader program, doing interviews, leading groups, helping out with events. 

What inspired you to take on this challenge?

YSC did a lot for me and my family. 

My sister was diagnosed when I was 21. She was 32. She battled breast cancer for nine long years.

There was talk about genetic mutations that put people at risk for breast cancer. I thought, wouldn't it be wierd if I had it? I did have the test, and yes, I had a rare mutation. It was on my father's side—his mother and her sister had died of breast cancer. My other two sisters tested negative.

That kind of breast cancer tends to be more aggressive. I had options. I could be diligent with my screenings or I could have a double mastectomy and reconstruction and be done with it. 

I had watched my sister do chemo every week for seven years. I thought: I don’t want that. I decided to go through the surgery.

Going through a series of tests to prepare, first they found calcification and then they found cancer. Mine wasn't in my lymph nodes yet. My surgery was bumped up a month. During that time, my sister passed away.

Chemo kicks your butt. After treatment I basically lived on the couch. For me, doing Tour de Pink was like taking the power back from cancer.

How are you defining success?

The big thing about the Tour de Pink in particular is making people aware that breast cancer can and does happen to young people.

When it does, they all need help. Me with my fertility issues, or women just starting their careers, or dating—how do you start dating with cancer? I did. You need to be an advocate for yourself, specially as a young woman. YSC is about supporting people. 

There’s all these different facets of breast cancer we don’t know everything about. YSC is helping people learn about them.

I don't mind doing a lot for them because they did so much for my sister. 

I want to achieve the goal of spreading the word, make sure no family has to feel the pain my family had to feel. It was so hard to call my mother, as she sat by my sister’s bed, and tell her I had it too. I don’t want another family to go through that.

I have a great team. Last year I rode with my two sisters, a brother-in-law, my husband, a close friend of my sister's and a cousin. I’m riding this year as a four-year survivor. Looking forward, next year will be really good: I’ll be a five-year survivor and it’l be the fifth year since my sister passed.

People tell me I’m inspiring. I say, "No, no, no—you have to meet the people in Tour de Pink."

Learn more about the Young Survival Coalition here and the Tour de Pink here. Want to help? The first link below is for Team Pleva's donation page and the second one is for Jamie's donation page.  

http://www.ysctourdepink.org/goto/TeamPleva

http://www.ysctourdepink.org/goto/JamiePlevaNickerson 

About this sponsorship: Patch has teamed up with Grape-Nuts cereal on this "What’s Your Mountain” campaign to find inspirational stories in our towns and celebrate folks who have affected positive change in their lives and communities.


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