Bensalem Cancer Survivor To Climb Mt. Kilimanjaro

BENSALEM TOWNSHIP, PA —Christine Hussey has already climbed one mountain and overcome the challenge.

The 47-year-old woman was diagnosed with Stage 4 ovarian cancer and a prognosis that looked grim: 70 percent of all patients do not live past five years and 80 percent of all women diagnosed will have a recurrence.

Now, seven years later, Hussey remains cancer free and is taking the fight to new heights.

She's going to climb another mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro, to raise cancer awareness.

"We are living life to the fullest," said Hussey, who will make the climb up Kilimanjaro with her husband Bill and two twin 14-year-old boys, joining other climbers in an awareness event this summer for the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition.

Hussey remembers when the thought of having cancer clicked for her as she was driving on Route 611 one day seven years ago.

Her mother Betty had been diagnosed with the disease as well and Hussey was her mother's caretaker. For two weeks, she had the signs and symptoms.

"I put 2 and 2 together and became more urgent about it," she said. "The doctors thought it was sympathy pain because I was so healthy. They didn't believe it. They ran tests and it came back right away. The doctors were shocked. The blood test showed elevated levels. My mother was undergoing her final chemo treatment."

Hussey was diagnosed on May 4, 2016, "six months to the day after my mother," she said. Her mother, now 78, has also beaten the odds as well.

"I just felt like the wind was taken out of my sails," said Hussey, who spoke with Patch on a Zoom call late last week.

Her husband Bill, 55, has been there throughout the journey. The two always used to participate in endurance races and try to get "to the finish line together," Bill said. He was ready to sign up immediately for the Kilimanjaro climb."

"We are leaning on one another to get through this," Christine Hussey said. "It takes a village."

The two have been training for the climb at Tyler State Park and were going to the Poconos to scale some mountains there as well.

"This is very emotional for me," Christine Hussey said. "I joined a support group for my mother. Not a day goes by that I don't think about the women we lost. This is a bucket list for me. This is monumental. We want to honor the women and show that no mountain and no peak is impossible to overcome."

So the family will trek the 38 miles to the tallest peak in Africa starting on July 4.

There will be 15 climbers, including six who are ovarian cancer survivors, said Vanda Soldati, the senior regional manager, Mid-Atlantic Region, for the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition.

The group will raise awareness and funding to support the ovarian cancer cause, she said.

For those who want to learn more, visit the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition.