Department of Defense Dependents Schools-Pacific teachers at Misawa Air Base, Japan, from left, Angie Martin, Teresa Giustino, Tracy Rowe and Lori Grant wear shirts and visors decorated with breast cancer awareness ribbons in honor of their friend and former colleague Anne Cannon, who is battling breast cancer. The teachers plan to wear the "Team Anne" gear in an upcoming 10K race in Towada that they’re running for their friend. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan — No one wants to put a face to National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
But if they didn’t already know someone affected by the disease, many teachers here do now.
Anne Cannon, a former school nurse at Sollars Elementary School and Sure Start educator at Cummings Elementary School, is battling breast cancer.
In a small gesture to help Anne cross the finish line in her fight, four of Anne’s friends and former colleagues at Misawa are running a 6.2-mile road race Oct. 12 in neighboring Towada.
They’ll be hard to miss in their pink T-shirts with the words "Team Anne" and black visors with pink ribbons.
Lori Grant, a teacher at Robert D. Edgren High School and an avid runner, signed up the women for the race. Last week she surprised them with the T-shirts she had made.
"My husband said, ‘Why not run for a reason? Why not run for Anne?’ " Grant said. "We don’t have to worry about a personal best. We’re running for her."
Anne doesn’t know about the race yet.
The teachers plan to surprise her with a photograph in their pink running uniforms.
"We’re coming together as a group and sending our energy her way," said Sollars teacher Tracy Rowe.
"You feel kind of helpless," added Teresa Giustino, a Department of Defense Dependents Schools school psychologist at Edgren. "This is something we can do."
The teachers also hope to raise awareness about breast cancer.
"We want to be noticed, and we want people to donate to cancer research," said Grant, naming the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation as one choice.
"This is my third good friend to have breast cancer," two under the age of 40, she said.
Giustino had a friend and aunt with breast cancer.
Cannon is in her mid-40s. She and her husband, John, the previous information specialist at Edgren, had orders to Germany this summer where both were to work for DODDS-Europe.
Instead of reporting to Bitburg High School to be the school nurse, the mother of six is at home in South Carolina, undergoing surgery and chemotherapy.
DODDS teachers at Misawa already have rallied around Anne, signing a banner for her and mailing a care package.
Her runner friends describe her as genuine, an activist, down to earth, "a hoot," and someone who loves to read.
"When I think of her, I think of a mother," said Edgren teacher Angie Martin.
Martin has never run a race longer than 3.1 miles and admits at first she was worried about whether she could finish twice the distance.
"Now, it’s so crystal-clear what the focus is," she said. "I’m perfectly healthy; I can run a 10K. It’s not about me. It’s about Anne."
