Saturday, September 15th 2012, 7:44 pm
Breast cancer patients, survivors and their loved ones flooded downtown Tulsa Saturday morning to Race for the Cure.
Overcast skies didn't keep participants from throwing on their pink tutus to fight breast cancer.
News On 6 anchor LeAnne Taylor, who is a breast cancer survivor, helped kick off the race, which is in its 16th year.
And for so many of the women, the Race for the Cure is personal.
With a team of fighters by her side, Shannon Turner is racing, and she's doing it one step at a time.
"I have just been ready to fight, get rid of it," Turner said. "I'm ready to be a survivor. I'm ready to inspire other people. I'm ready to stand in somebody else's corner."
It's been just a few months since Turner's life changed forever.
She was taking a shower and discovered a lump under her arm.
"It was just something that was out of the ordinary, something that I knew that wasn't there a couple weeks prior," she said.
Her doctor dismissed it, told her it was just a cyst, nothing to cause alarm.
But Shannon said she listened to her body and knew something wasn't right.
"It was just gonna be a cyst and in my heart, in my husband's heart, we knew," Turner said. "We knew and insisted that they further [the] treatment. And it was cancer."
Turner was diagnosed on May 17, with what she said she already knew was breast cancer.
Since, she's fought her way through surgery and two chemotherapy treatments.
Still, her journey is only beginning.
"I'll have 11 more treatments of this and then on to radiation and then after that, I hope I can say I'm cancer free," she said.
It's something that causes her children to hope for better days.
For her two little girls, it's tough to comprehend.
But for her boys, the diagnosis is a little too real and far too close to home.
"It's just really tough on me because, it's just my mom and I don't want her to be sick or anything," Garrett Turner said. "I just want her to stay healthy."
While Shannon may be fighting the hardest fight of her life, she's not doing it alone."
"I'm with her every step of the way and I'm always going to be right there next to her if anything happens," Garrett Turner said.
So, with the spirit of a survivor, Shannon Turner and her team are pressing toward the finish line -- ready to win.
September 15th, 2012
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