Twins Chair Race For Healthy Cause

By MaryEllen Fillo

While studying breast cancer drugs and treatments in her lab several years ago, researcher Joan Caron herself developed breast cancer and needed to use one of the very drugs she was studying.

"The irony is that now I know how bad the drugs are," said Caron, a professor in the University of Connecticut School of Medicine's department of cell biology. "It was the exact drug I was studying, and it was awful. I still have lost feeling in my toes. These drugs are just way too tough."

Caron, 56, an eight-year breast cancer survivor, and her twin sister, Jane, a social worker with the Hospital of Central Connecticut at New Britain General, are co-chairwomen of this year's Connecticut Race in the Park, which funds research and education solely in the state of Connecticut. The race takes place Saturday in New Britain's Walnut Hill Park.

Joan has run the race before and expects to run again this year. Jane will be tethered to a walkie-talkie as a point person for the race, which she cannot run because of asthma.

The Connecticut Breast Health Initiative, which organizes the race, awarded grant money to fund Joan's current research, including her work with a new, promising drug to treat breast cancer and possibly other cancers.

"They heard about my research and about the drug I discovered," she said. "I thought it was the morally right thing to do, to chair the race, since they helped me. Jane is a social worker, so she wants to help everyone."

The fifth-annual race, expected to raise $500,000 and include 7,500 walkers and runners, begins with registration at 6:30 a.m., a survivor breakfast at 7:30, a kids' run at 9, followed by a 5-kilometer men's run, 5-kilometer women's run, 1-mile walk and 4-kilometer walk.

For information, visit ctraceinthepark.org.

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