By KELLEY DAUGHERTY

Special Sections Editor

This October, Cathy Gailey of Peachtree City plans to celebrate a two-year victory. She is a survivor, so far, of the disease that kills about 44,000 women a year.

Breast cancer.

It is a phrase that strikes fear and dread in every woman so much fear that many refuse to see a doctor for regular check-ups in case cancer is detected.

Although Gailey did not have a single factor supporting the profile of a woman with breast cancer, she, at 33 years old, did in fact have multiple tumors in her breast. In many ways, she was the picture of health. She didn't smoke or drink. She exercised routinely and had no family history of breast cancer. She lived a typical woman's life, balancing her job as a real estate agent while being a wife and mother of two.

In October 1997, while performing her weekly self breast exam, Gailey felt a small lump approximately the size of a pea. She immediately visited her gynecologist, who told her to return in three or four months if it appeared to be growing.

Gailey, feeling urgent to know for sure, decided about three weeks later to visit the Fayette Diagnostic Center for a mammogram. The lump had already grown another five centimeters. An ultrasound was conducted the next day followed by a core biopsy.

"A lot of people are afraid to hear they have it," Gailey said. "Doctors can make mistakes, they don't know you like you know you. You have to listen to your body."

Two days later, though she had not received the results to her test yet, Gailey was on her way to Las Vegas, Nev., to tell her parents what she already knew. She had it. She received confirmation later that day.

"If I had waited, I would have been dead a few months later," she said. Statistically, breast cancer though rare in women under 50, spreads faster in young women.

After Gailey returned from her weekend trip, she was scheduled for surgery by Wednesday. Gailey said while looking at the ultrasound, her oncologist pointed to several spots where the cancer had grown.

"I don't think I handled this like most people," she said. "My first reaction was to protect my children."

Thinking back to her entire experience that she recorded in a journal, Gailey said that she remembers thanking God for the doctor who immediately turned from her and put the ultrasound over her 5-year-old son's heart.

"He showed me this is life, this is something to focus on," she said. "I wanted to get things in motion. I felt determination. Let's fix this thing."

Due to the widespread growth of the cancer in the breast and the lymph nodes, Gailey underwent a full masectomy, followed by five months of chemotherapy.

Throughout this time, Gailey said she made constant effort to keep her children's lives in order.

"Everything was fine because no one over reacted," she said.

Realizing she would be losing her hair, due to the chemotherapy, Gailey went to the store and bought two electric razors. She then sat down with both children and allowed them to shave her shoulder-length black hair and to carve their initials into her hair, "so it wouldn't be scary for them to see me lose my hair."

Though the chemotherapy forced her into the hospital every three weeks after treatment due to serious side effects, Gailey has now been in remission for one year. She refused the optional radiation treatments afterward, though she continues to take Tamoxifen, a drug that reduces breast cancer reoccurance.

Now she continues her campaign for breast cancer education every chance she gets.

"People excuse it and say its not going to happen to me," Gailey said. "But I say, if it can happen to me, it can happen to you. I'm reality and it's hard for people to hear that."

Gailey has written over 200 letters recently to family, friends, companies and government officials telling her story and asking for their support as she and her husband walk Avon's Breast Cancer 3 Day.

On October 1-3, over 2,000 men and women are expected to go on a 60-mile trek, at 20 miles a day from Lake Lanier to Atlanta.

Gailey and her family are already in training. Gailey and her husband both take karate three times a week. Soon they will begin regular walking eventually getting up to 20-25 miles a day.

Getting prepared also means more than just shaping up their bodies. Unlike most fund raisers, the Avon Breast Cancer 3 Day requires participants to raise $1,700 a piece, for which they are personally responsible. So, the couple is actively sending our pledge cards and will hold garage sales and car washes to raise the rest.

Though this may be a daunting task for some, Gailey said it just proves how committed she is to this cause. All proceeds from the walk will be awarded as grants by Avon's Breast Cancer Awareness Crusade, a national nonprofit initiative of Avon Products, Inc. The mission of Avon's crusade is to provide low-income, minority and older women with direct access to breast cancer education and early detection services at no cost.

In the meantime, Gailey is also continuing her services locally by offering to speak to groups of women about her experience and the importance of self breast exams.

Self breast exams should be performed by all women two weeks before your mentrual cycle, both standing up and laying down. Start on the outside of the breast and go all around toward the middle and make sure to feel underneath the underarm and right behind it.

Regardless of your age or family history, it is possible for all women to get breast cancer and it occurs in approximately 1 percent of men as well.

Gailey said her faith in Jesus Christ has shown her to trust in God's will and has allowed the experience to bring her family closer to gether.

"You don't take things for granted," she said. "We just live day to day."

Gailey continues to undergo reconstructive surgery and works at the ReMax Results in Peachtree City.

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