05/29/2026
Brenda jokes that she collects oncologists “like medical Pokémon,” but beneath this humor is remarkable resilience.
As an endurance athlete long before she became a cancer patient, she approached her diagnoses the same way she approaches running: by enduring and showing up. There are treatment plans to analyze, timelines to adjust, setbacks to overcome, and progress to wait on. “You know where it’s going to be hard,” she says. “You know where it’s just going to be a grind.”
Since her endometrial cancer diagnosis in 2023, Brenda has navigated surgeries, radiation, genetic testing, a rare Cowden-like syndrome diagnosis, and now a second cancer discovered during preventative screening.
Brenda writes candidly about the realities of cancer treatment and recovery on her blog Running from Hysteria. She describes the “treatment whiplash” of sudden changes in care plans, the science-driven need to understand every possible outcome, the slow rebuilding of strength after surgery, and the emotional necessity of having something, like the Brave Like Gabe 5K, waiting on the calendar. Her musings are not only helpful for her own processing, but for other cancer patients going through similar experiences.
Read Brenda's story: https://www.bravelikegabe.org/mybravestory/brenda-sanderson
Join Brenda and many survivors registered to run the Brave Like Gabe 5K on June 25th. Together, we run on hope. We run for research. We are not giving up. 💙 https://haku.ly/3dfeb0a30a
