Since Patti Margeson was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011, she has been working to raise awareness about the importance of getting checked.

From participating in walks and runs — in various capacities — to raise money for the Susan G. Komen Foundation, to helping run special events at local businesses, the Redmond resident has been doing her part to spread the word.

For Margeson, getting checked regularly was what has her living cancer free for almost three and a half years. She even has a tattoo of “1-11-2012” on her calf, marking the date of when she was deemed free of cancer.

CHECK THE WHOLE FAMILY

Margeson had gone in for her annual mammogram in November 2011 and learned shortly after that appointment that she had breast cancer. Because the cancer was caught early, she received treatment and underwent surgery to remove a five-centimeter lump in her right breast. In addition, Margeson also learned that she had the BRCA 1 gene — a genetic mutation that prevents her body from fighting estrogen-based cancer. As a result, she also had a total hysterectomy as there was an 85 percent of her getting cancer again and an increased risk for ovarian cancer.

While breast cancer is largely associated as a female cancer, Margeson said it affects both genders.

“This isn’t just a female thing,” she said. “Men can get breast cancer.”

She added that while most women will look to the maternal side of their family to see if they might carry the BRCA 1 gene, it is important to check with both sides as men can carry the gene, as well. Margeson said she inherited the gene from her father.

Men with the BRCA 1 gene have a higher risk of developing breast cancer, prostate cancer and skin cancer. Some men with the BRCA 2 gene have an increased risk for pancreas, gallbladder, bile duct and stomach cancers.

GETTING OUT, SPREADING THE WORD

Since she has been cancer free, Margeson has participated in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day walk three times. She has walked it once and done route safety for the event twice. She will be doing route safety again for this year’s event from Sept. 18-20.

Margeson said with the latter, she rides her bike on the route alongside the walkers, helping them cross streets and making sure they stay on the path. If a walker can’t finish the walk, she said part of her role is also to call for a van to pick up the walker.

“They feel like they’re cheating (if they don’t finish) and it’s not,” Margeson said, adding that when she did the walk, she had to call her husband to drive her part of the way.

For the 3-Day, Margeson’s husband, Redmond City Council president Hank Margeson, will drive alongside her team, taking people’s coats when they get warm, charging phones if needed and filling any other need. Patti said one year, he even drove one of their team members to Seattle because she needed to get a blood transfusion and then drove her back to meet up with the rest of the group.

“He’s just a great sport about it,” Patti said.

In addition to the 3-Day, Patti is also planning to participate in Komen Puget Sound’s Race for the Cure 5K. The event is June 7 and she signed up to participate in January. During the registration process, she also checked that she will be walking with a dog — a dog she did not have yet. But since then, she has gotten a dog, who she has named Layla, and the two will be doing the 5K together.

Hank said they are now empty nesters — their son and daughter are in their 20s — and when their son moved out, Patti told him she wanted a dog.

“She convinced me it was worth her while,” he said.

OUTSIDE INTERESTS

Since she has been cancer free, Patti — who works as a child-care provider out of their home — bought a farm so they could have a place to board her and her daughter’s horses as the farm they had been boarded at previously changed hands and the new owners couldn’t take them. To pay for the property, Patti took a second job, working part-time at Aegis of Redmond.

“I discovered I love old people,” she said with a laugh. “I just clicked with them.”

This, combined with her first job, made for up to 90-hour weeks.

Hank said his wife would not have been able to do this if she wasn’t feeling well health-wise. He added that Patti is also the type of person to fill in the gaps and help out wherever it is needed.

Patti agreed, saying that caregiving is in her nature.

“All my friends are in diapers or just out of them or getting ready for them,” she said with a laugh.

As a cancer survivor, Patti said she has reflected back on her life to see what she would have done differently if she could. And while there is not much she would change, she said she would have taken more time to focus on herself and taken better care of herself — making sure she was exercising and eating right. She said she also would have taken some time to develop her own interests and hobbies.

Although, she said, she did rediscover her love of horses — which she had as a girl — through her daughter’s involvement in equestrian sports.

“You got to do things for you,” Patti said.