"Fight Like A Girl"

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and I want to dedicate this blog post to Kim Kresta who lost her battle with breast cancer 5 years ago.

Kim was a member of our 1986 graduating class at Brazoswood High School and the 2 of us attended Sunday School together. Having never met a stranger and never at a loss for words, she easily makes the top 5 list of friendliest people I have ever met.

The last time we spent a significant amount of time together was on an airplane. Kim had been in Dallas visiting friends, and I was taking a weekend trip to Lake Jackson. Much to our surprise, we spotted each other in the boarding area at Dallas Love Airport. We chatted a good while before boarding the plane. She was pregnant with her youngest child, Kenzie, so she got to pre-board. She told me she would save me a seat and she did. We got to continuing talking and laughing on the hour long flight to Houston. When we exited the jet way, my parents and her husband and children were anxiously waiting our arrival. That was before 9/11 so we were literally greeted the second we entered the terminal. We hugged good-bye and exchanged sentiments. Sadly, I think it was the last time I spoke to or saw Kim, but I am forever grateful for the time we got to spend together flying the friendly skies.

Kim's family is determined to keep her memory alive and to do everything they can to fight this disease. I was fortunate enough to attend the Bunco fundraiser the first year after her death, and have participated in the t-shirt campaign for the past three years. My hope is this will continue and that someday I will proudly have a closet full of Kim Kresta t-shirts!

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Read her story and be inspired by the impact she is still having today.......

At the height of her battle with breast cancer, Kim Kresta, a 32-year-old school teacher and mother of three, received a small pair of pink boxing gloves from a friend. She hung them from her car’s rearview mirror, a personal reminder that every day was a fight for her life.

As the third generation of women in her family to battle the disease, it was a fight she was all too familiar with. And one she would ultimately lose.

In October 2003, Kim Kresta lost her two-and-a-half-year battle with breast cancer when the disease spread to her brain. She was 35. She left behind her husband Greg, two sons, ages 10 (Clint) and 7 (Cody), a 5-year-old daughter (Kenzie), and a family determined to carry on the fight in her memory.

Since Kim’s death, her sisters and her mother, Lowana, a breast cancer survivor herself, have dedicated themselves to raising funds for breast cancer research at the Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center at Baylor College of Medicine, where Kim was a patient.

“She always said she was given this disease for a reason,” says Kim’s sister Dawn. “She wanted to make a difference. She’s not here so we’re doing that in her memory, raising every little bit of money we can to support the research that will one day bring an end to this disease.”

The first year after Kim’s death they held a bunco fundraiser, a game Kim loved. While the event was hugely successful, with over 350 members of the community attending, “it was really hard on the children,” says Dawn.

The next year they decided to sell breast cancer t-shirts, an endeavor that has also proven remarkably successful, thanks to the memory of a woman who was loved dearly by all who knew her.

This year’s “Fight like a Girl” t-shirt, featuring pink boxing gloves on the back, is particularly popular. The front of the shirt bears an image of three girls and the message “Together we can make a difference.”

“The three girls represent Kim and her two sisters, Dawn and Julie” says Lowana. “They also symbolize the three generations of women in our family who have battled breast cancer.”

The Kresta’s t-shirts are currently sold by word of mouth. “We’ve mailed these shirts as far as Canada,” says Dawn. “They’ve been spotted in Dallas, New York City and Michigan. There’s a shop in Georgia that’s featuring them and two in Lake Jackson. All the teachers in Brazoria County are wearing them in honor of Kim, and now even the students are asking about them.” Banks, insurance offices and local industry, and others who have lost loved ones are ordering the shirts as well.

Five years after her death, Kim’s mother, sister, oncologist and nurse sit together and reflect on Kim’s life and the legacy she left behind. It’s clear that time has done little to ease the pain of Kim’s passing.

“Kim’s death was a devastating loss to all of us,” says Dr. Powel Brown, her medical oncologist at the Smith Breast Center and the Center’s director of research. He specializes in extremely high-risk families and individuals, genetics and breast cancer prevention.

“Kim’s case was highly suggestive of a cancer gene alteration in the family,” explains Dr. Brown. “In addition, she had a very aggressive and hard-to-treat form of breast cancer known as HER2/neu positive breast cancer. At the time she was referred to me, we had a clinical trial underway testing some new drugs for this type of breast cancer. Kim enrolled and had a dramatic response to the medicine being tested, which was Herceptin.”

“In fact, that clinical trial led, in part, to the approval of Herceptin for use in early breast cancer,” he adds.

“The problem with Herceptin is that while it’s extremely effective in the treatment of breast cancer, it does not treat the breast cancer that spreads to the brain, which is ultimately what happened in Kim’s case,” continues Dr. Brown. “So clearly we need better drugs that can also treat the brain tumor that’s HER2/neu positive.”

“When the family came to me and said they wanted to do something in Kim’s memory to support our research efforts, we were extremely happy to help,” says Dr. Brown.

“It’s important to recognize that while much of the breast cancer research conducted today is funded by government sources, those sources don’t fund the very early studies,” he explains. “The money being raised by Kim’s family and friends helps fund new projects for the prevention and treatment of breast cancer, like better treatments for HER2/neu positive breast cancer that can cross over and treat the brain. Thanks to Kim’s family, physicians at the Smith Breast Center have today developed a clinical trial testing a new drug, Lapatinib for very early HER2/neu positive breast cancer.”

A picture of Kim and her children sits in Dr. Brown’s office, where he can see it daily. It’s the last really good picture she had taken before her death, notes her mother.

“While I was caring for Kim I saw her every week for a year,” says Dr. Brown. “Any time you see patients that frequently, you can’t help but develop close friendships. She was a remarkable woman with an incredible spirit and an incredible will to fight this disease. And she was always so pleasant – usually she would come in and cheer me up after a busy day. Over time I met her husband and her children and most of her family, all of whom I am very close with today.”

“It’s hard,” says Suzanne Perez through tears, an RN and clinical operations manager at the Smith Breast Center. “She wasn’t just a patient, she was a good friend. You get so attached when you see someone week after week. Kim would walk into the clinic and light up the whole infusion area with her smile. She got to know the other patients. She was so much fun, even while going through this horrible disease and treatment. We all loved her.”

“I applaud this family for taking such a tragic loss and bringing some good out of it,” says Dr. Brown. “The money being raised for research and the outreach taking place through the t-shirts is helping us make significant progressagainst breast cancer. I know Kim is watching and smiling down on your efforts.”

There has been another benefit to the work the family is doing in Kim’s memory, as Dr. Brown explains: “Through their efforts, Kim’s family is bridging the gap between the researchers and the patients who benefit from their work.

At the bunco party they held that first year after Kim’s passing, we invited all of the lab investigators to come and meet the patient’s family and their community – that’s a rare opportunity for our researchers to meet those whose lives they touch.”

“We’re all fighting for the same thing,” he concludes. “Kim’s family has set an example of an extremely productive partnership between patients and the medical community. We’re very excited and honored to continue thatrelationship and, together, eradicate this disease once and for all.”

To purchase a Kim Kresta Memorial Fund “Fight like a Girl” t-shirt, leave a comment on my blog and I will arrange to get one for you. All proceeds benefit breast cancer research at the Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center at Baylor College of Medicine.

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