Karyn Proctor

5 years Cancer Free!

To my loyal friends and donors,

It is hard to believe another year has flown by, but  on Saturday 2 May 2026, I will be walking 42kms (not 35kms this year) as part of the New Town Toyota Walk for Women's Cancer. 2026 is the year of fives for me. It will be my 5th walk, I will (hopefully still) be five years cancer free, and I will be turning  fifty.  So to celebrate all those cool milestones I figured it was fitting to aim to raise $5000 for The Perkins and The Walk for Women's Cancer.  Over the previous 4 years I have raised $24,430 so another $5000 would take me up to almost $30,000.  A few of my amazing team Purple Hearts members, have also signed up with me to do the longer walk this year to celebrate.  An extra 7 kms of pounding the pavement will mean we will walk a full marathon distance on the 2nd May. 

 I like the imagery of a walking a marathon, because the last four years have seemed like a marathon at times, fighting cancer isn't easy, but I now feel like I am finally over the worst of it, almost at the finish line, dare I say.  I have had two surgeries this year, one to remove my ovaries to reduce my chance of recurrence. This also meant I no longer needed monthly injections, so I haven't returned to the chemo ward since March this year.  The longest stint ever and I am hoping to never have to return!  In August I also had a  revision surgery from my reconstruction and I am already feeling that I have a lot more movement and a lot less pain on my right side as a result, so I am very excited about that!

I feel great and therefore the time is right to walk the extra distance to raise funds for Women's cancer research.  I hope you will all join me on my training and fundraising journey and help to support this vital cause!

A huge shout out to Team Purple Hearts for raising over $380,000 in the 11 years they have been walking, what an achievement.  We have a few fundraisers in the works to hopefully help to make that $400,000 this year.  For such a small team it is a mighty achievement. 

While I will be forever grateful to medical research for helping me to survive a grade 3, stage 3 lobular breast cancer, there is so much more to be done to ensure that women of WA confronting cancer stay with us for as long as possible.  As always, any amount that you can spare will be greatly appreciated.

Let’s walk towards a cancer-free future – together.

Gratefully yours,

Karyn

Please help me, help the Perkins.