7/29/2019 Breast Cancer Awareness Section

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Oob 8, 2011 • Breast cancer awareness a spily Publio of h rihmod tim-Diph

Heritage Chevrolet and the American Cancer Societyare making strides against breast cancer 

Proud to support.

We’re there for all life’s journeys.Even the detours.

See us on the web at: www.heritagechevrolet.com www.heritagecheveroletchest.com

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“The associates of HeritageChevrolet are proud tosupport the continuedawareness of the work tofight breast cancer andencourage all of our friendsto GET INVOLVED”Jay BurchellPresident

By Joanna Ernst

I

n 2005 Lisa Marie Vitolo, a group tness instruc-

tor near Watchung Hills, N.J., was diagnosed with

breast cancer. Her tumor then metastasized and

ormed our inoperable nodules on her lungs.

Vitolo’s mother, who also had been diagnosed

with breast cancer, passed away three years earlier

rom a heart attack. (Cardiac side eects occur in as

many as 20 percent o patients who have undergone

chemotherapy and radiation treatments.)

The doctor told this married mother o three young

daughters that i chemotherapy didn’t work, she should

“get her aairs in order.” But the intensive therapy was

successul, and six years later, she’s cancer-ree.

Vitolo attributes her survival to willpower, a

positive mindset and, perhaps surprisingly, a regularexercise routine.

To battle the disease, Vitolo took a powerul

cocktail o medications. While the concoction was

potent enough to combat cancer cells, it was debilitat-

ing or her body. She reerred to hersel during that

time as “the blender”—meaning that this mix o the

malignant and the medicinal was poisoning her

system; through exercise she was able to “shake up”

these toxic “ingredients.”

“I always wanted to be healthy; it was an escape

or me even beore the sickness,” Vitolo said. “Once I

got sick, it was even more so an escape. By exercis-

ing through the chemo, it was like the soldiers in my

body were ghting a war. It made me stronger. I

would take the medications, and it was this blender o

toxins inside o me. I ran two miles ater each

treatment. It’s just what I did. I wanted to get the

toxins out o my body. I had to shake up the blender,

to get mysel going.”

Not surprisingly, the doctors loved Vitolo’s positive

attitude and tenacity as she committed hersel to

achieving a mind-body connection. Every potent

dosage was coupled with rigorous physical activity.

While there is scientic evidence that supports the

role o exercise or breast cancer patients and survi-

vors, or Vitolo, the workouts were just as much about

the attitude o ghting back.

“O course I was araid. I was very scared,” Vitolo

conded. But she disciplined hersel to run two miles

ater every chemotherapy treatment. She also

continued teaching our group tness classes each

week at Eclipse Fitness Sports and Wellness, where

she had been body-stepping, pumping and jamming

since the acility’s opening day. And, above all else,

Vitolo was dedicated to running her home with her

husband and three little girls.

Obviously, Vitolo was juggling a ull plate, and

some concessions were made once the treatment

process was well underway. Ater seven treatments,

she dropped three o the our classes. She explained,

“Raising my amily came rst.” But she never surren-

dered the ourth class, and she never missed a two-

mile run ollowing a chemo treatment.

“I ought through it. I didn’t want pity, and that

helped me—I wasn’t home depressed. I was helping

mysel get through a hard time. I mixed up the

blender,” said Vitolo, who endured 10 rounds o

treatment along with a double mastectomy operation.

“Lance Armstrong had cancer all over his body

but still got on his bike, and he’s still here. There’s

some sort o pattern. The exercise keeps you healthy,

and it gets you through,” she continued.

“Maybe I wouldn’t still be here, but I took control,

and my body ollowed. Aterward, I stayed into it.

Now I am the group tness manager, and we do

breast cancer awareness undraisers with dierent

themed programs that get the members involved

each year. It makes people aware that, in the real

world, this is very much an ongoing battle or

women,” Vitolo said.

“I always ran. It was what was in my head: ‘Let

me go shake it up.’ And it’s not about how I exer-

cised, or the degree o it, it was the mental part o it. I

didn’t think about the cancer—the living and the

dying—I thought about staying healthy. It kept my

mind clear and gave me a way to ght. And I’m

here,” Vitolo refected, with gratitude resonating, in

her no-nonsense Northern accent. “It’s a miracle.”

Exercise

Lisa Marie Vitolo

s ha kesup the cancer