She’s Taking Quick Steps to Help Save Lives

Waves break just a few yards from Sandi Carter’s home. The rush, crash and tumble sounds of the surf pervade the rooms of her Laguna Beach home like an on-going whisper. Hushed, but soothing, rhythmic and calm.

You only hear it if you’re listening.

It takes effort to be in tune with life’s little wonders. And Carter, a cross-country coach at Laguna Beach High, always figured she was as appreciative as anyone. Fresh powder on the ski slopes, a masterful game of tennis, a steaming cappuccino . . . Carter took them all in with a smile.

But today, nearly a year since learning that she had breast cancer, Carter’s smile is even brighter. Life moves on, but like a beautiful sunset or the gentle sound of rain, it no longer just slips by Carter’s senses.

“I want to raft down the Colorado River, and I’d love to go trekking in the Himalayas,” says Carter, who looks younger than her 47 years. “Right now I feel I can do anything.”

Including, she says, help find a way to eradicate breast cancer, the leading killer of women between 35 and 54. It is Carter’s dream--and ongoing commitment--to see that hope realized before the year 2000.

Next Friday will mark one year since Carter underwent the double mastectomy that saved her life. The following Sunday--Sept. 27--marks the day she and hundreds of others will take steps, literally, to help breast cancer survivors, present and future.

Carter will compete in the “Race for the Cure,” a five-kilometer run/walk in Newport Beach presented by the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Proceeds from the race--one of a national series--benefit early detection programs in Orange County and research.

Carter, a runner for 15 years, will compete in the race of a lifetime, regardless of how quickly she finishes. The fact that she’s competing in the event’s “Breast Cancer Survivor Division,” she says, makes it all the better.

“That’s what I want, to give a living message,” Carter says. “To show I’m not a victim but someone who represents the possibility for vitality and care-ability (in breast cancer patients).”

At first, Carter did feel like a victim. It started with a routine mammogram. Although there wasn’t any lump, doctors told Carter they were suspicious of slight calcification in the breast tissue.

Denial set in. Haven’t I always eaten right? Carter thought. And exercised regularly? And what about family history? The odds, she figured, were easily in her favor.

“When it came down to it, I was sure they had someone else’s mammogram,” she says. “I mean, no way it could have been mine. I was the healthiest person I knew.”

But a biopsy revealed a tiny tumor--the smallest, Carter’s pathologist told her, he had ever seen. It was malignant. Carter, a single mother of four, sat down with her kids to discuss the options. They all agreed that mastectomy--with its high curability rates--and reconstructive surgery seemed best.

“They all understood so clearly,” Carter says. “They were like, ‘Well, what’s it going to take for Mom to be healthy?’ Even my youngest, Lindsey, who was 9 at the time, became so informed, she could describe quite technically the entire process. She was always asking the doctors, ‘Now what do you plan to do about this?’ or ‘How are you going to handle that?’ ”

Her cross-country team, meanwhile, was about to start the season. Carter co-coaches Laguna Beach’s boys and girls with Earl Towner, a veteran ultra-marathoner. Carter gave Towner a letter to read to the team the morning of her cancer surgery.

“In it, I explained exactly what was going on,” she says. “Told them it was OK to talk to me about it. It was OK not to talk about it. Whatever they felt comfortable with.”

One of the runners--an exchange student from Denmark--told Carter that her mother had just been diagnosed as having breast cancer too. It helped to be able to see and understand what she was going through half a world away.

Carter’s greatest relief came five days after surgery. Lab tests confirmed that the cancer hadn’t spread to her lymph nodes. Carter could schedule reconstructive surgery. Life was starting anew. She couldn’t stop crying.

“I was just so happy,” Carter says. “I left the hospital and suddenly, everything just looked more beautiful. The sky looked so much bluer. The ocean was greener. . . . Now I want that for everybody.”

The message certainly isn’t lost on her cross-country runners, who turned out in record numbers this season. Carter is as energetic as a teen-ager, a role model beyond compare. Whether it’s time for intervals on the track or a quick lesson in sports nutrition, Carter is with them every step of the way.

“We tell the kids,” Carter says, “ ‘Our goal is for you to be in the best shape of your life, and have fun getting there.’ ”

A small pleasure, but certainly worth savoring.