News>Warrior Games 2013: Cancer survivor tackles new challenge
Photos
Staff Sgt. Lara Ishikawa runs laps at the Academy indoor track during the Wounded Warrior Games Training Camp held in Colorado Springs, Colo., April 18, 2013. Ishikawa is stationed at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. (U.S. Air Force photo/Desiree N. Palacios)
Staff Sgt. Lara Ishikawa listens to her coach speak before running laps at the Academy indoor track during the Wounded Warrior Games Training Camp held in Colorado Springs, Colo., April 17, 2013. Ishikawa is stationed at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. (U.S. Air Force photo/Desiree N. Palacios)
Staff Sgt. Lara Ishikawa and Senior Airman Gene Gatzert run laps at the Academy indoor track during the Wounded Warrior Games Training Camp held in Colorado Springs, Colo., April 18, 2013. Ishikawa is stationed at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. (U.S. Air Force photo/Desiree N. Palacios)
5/11/2013 - COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AFNS) -- Staff Sgt. Lara Ishikawa found herself among a trio of female Air Force Warrior Games athletes with a special bond. Ishikawa, Tech. Sgt. Monica Figueroa and Master Sgt. Sherry Nel are all cancer survivors and relied on each other for support and conversation during the team's selection camp at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
Before the holidays in 2009, Ishikawa, then a diagnostic imaging technologist at Aviano Air Base, Italy, never imagined she would be running track and field events, not to mention in competition for wounded warrior athletes. She first felt a lump in her breast in December 2009, but her invasive mammary carcinoma wasn't diagnosed until the following April.
"It's heart-wrenching," Ishikawa said. "Nobody expects to get cancer, and I had no family history of it. I've always been very healthy and active, and I tried to take care of myself. It was a shock, still a shock, but you learn to cope and move on."
While Ishikawa, whose cancer is now in remission after multiple surgeries, a double mastectomy and reconstruction, didn't want to compete because she didn't have a combat-related injury, conversations with Figueroa and Nel, along with other wounded warriors, changed her mind. She was already particularly close with Nel, who she befriended near the end of her recovery from chemotherapy and radiation in the 59th Medical Wing's Patient Squadron at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas.
"Lara and I are pretty much parallel with the complications we've had," Nel said. "We've both had just about everything you can throw at us. We'd been doing it individually, thinking that we were both alone. It felt so good to find out that we were not alone. Lara really inspired me with her tenacity. She's a little bear claw because she just grabs on to something and takes care of it. Her spirit really had me hooked."
While the multiple surgeries sapped her energy in the past few years, she appears more than ready for the training and competition in the 100 and 200-meter and long jump track and field events.
"I feel more energetic today than I have in the past three years," she said. "But in the past two and a half years, I had no energy because I had the surgeries, having to deal with the career, and the medications they put you on that make you tired. Last spring, I had a pretty serious surgery. After that, I could hardly walk, hardly make it up my stairs. I found it a challenge to go for a walk around the block, even though I knew it was good for me. I don't like to sit around doing nothing, so I made myself take a walk and realized I could do that. The next thing I knew, two months later, I was running.
"With the Warrior Games, I've been pushed to my max. I'm really sore, but I'm working muscles I haven't worked in 15 to 20 years, and emotionally, I've met some incredible people."
After the Games, Ishikawa hopes she can continue on with her 10-year Air Force career, but if she's not able to remain on duty, she will adjust to a new course.
"I've enjoyed the Air Force," she said. "The Air Force has been wonderful to me in every way. I don't have one complaint. On the other hand, if I get out, I can start a new life, maybe go to school. But the main goal is to stay healthy. If I'm healthy, I'm happy."
Comments
5/13/2013 5:53:20 PM ET Fig Make it happen great job keep up the good work. YOU ROCK
John Cowan, manas ab
5/13/2013 4:15:31 PM ET Go TSgt Fig. We are all here supporting you and all of the Warriors out there competing. Its a true inspiration to see all of you work so hard to accomplish what you have and to see that nothing can knock you down and keep you there. Keep fighting and go WIN the thing
TSgt Sarah Herrera, Whiteman AFB
5/13/2013 2:46:10 PM ET Good luck in the Warrior Games but you are already a winner. Thank you for sharing your inspiring story.
AF Civilian, New Mexico
5/13/2013 12:31:52 PM ET Hi SSgt Ishikawa I was just logging into the Portal and saw your picture I am so happy for you and so glad you got selected for the Warrior Games what a wonderful event to be apart of you are an inspiration
TSgt Krystal Guillen, JBER Alaska
5/13/2013 10:26:57 AM ET Awesome to see and read this Tomorrow is my one year mark from finding out I had pre-cancerous cells for breast cancer. June 2013 will mark one year since my double mastectomy and in July 2013 will be one year from when I found out it was Stage 1 breast cancer. I underwent multiple surgeries chemotherapy reconstruction...which I am still going through and continue to receive certain treatments through iv at my cancer center. I can completely relate to what this woman has gone through.
TSgt Moore, Sheppard AFB TX
5/13/2013 8:55:54 AM ET I remember the day we found out about TSgt Figuero's cancer. I remember going to see her and her personal struggle and all the accomplishments she has made. She is an amazing Mother MTI and NCO... and moreover friend mentor and hero. Nice to see these Airmen overcome and inspire Good On You Ladies
TSgt Hilary Reyes, Austin TXLackland AFB
5/12/2013 8:31:21 AM ET From one survivor to another....keep running.
