North Bay Woman

reached her liver. An estimated 20 to 30-percent of all breast cancer cases become metastatic, meaning the cancer has moved to some other part of the body. The average life expectancy after a metastatic diagnosis is little more than two years. Lis has nearly doubled that. She is focusing on living with her cancer, not dying from it. She has become an out- spoken advocate for breast cancer research and fundraising in hopes that someday soon metastatic cancer will be a lifetime illness that is treatable, like diabetes – not just a death sentence. And whenever she speaks about her journey, the camera seems to find her, whether being interviewed on NBC national news, rallying the crowds at the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in San Francisco or taking the stage as a model for "Stepping Out to Celebrate Life" in Marin. She is an impressive fundraiser: she and her team have raised more than $240,000 over five walks, including $103,000 this summer alone. At the same time, she has also become the lifeline for many friends and family members battling the same disease, women who pray they can absorb some of Lis's spirit. "You have to be drawn to her because she's got this smile and this outlook," said her friend Cheryl Brandon, who was accompa- nied to her first chemo appointment by Lis two years ago."She's real about it, too. Some people are sunny, sunny, sunny. But you can hear real from Lis. She understands and knows the frustration and is honest about what sucks, you know?" And she has forged a special bond with her oncologist from UCSF Medical Center, Dr. Pamela Munster, who was startled to receive a breast cancer diagnosis of her own. Of all her patients, it was Lis she turned to to share the news and seek advice. "Lis is not just the pa- tient," Munster said. "She was also my teacher to help me deal with my disease." The Diagnosis In March 2002, Lis was a young mother, raising her children in Mill Valley, not too far from where she grew up in Bolinas. She was just 37 and an active volunteer in her boys' schools and Little League when she noticed a hard spot in her breast. Her youngest son, Andrew, was three. Despite her family history, doctors back then were reluctant to recom- mend mammograms until their patients turned 40. Lis feared she wouldn't live long enough to see her boys through elementary school. With her husband Mike at her side, four rounds of chemotherapy commenced. She lost her hair, underwent a double mastecto- my, and began five years of hormonal therapy. Like other women in her family, Lis prayed she was "one and done." Over the next eight years, the couple jumped back into their lives with fervor. They grew their management consulting business, Venture Pay Group Consulting, from their Mill Valley home. She participated in her first Avon walk and volunteered as team mom for soccer and lacrosse. She became a community leader, chairing the board of Kiddo!, the community foundation for Mill Valley public schools where she helped raise millions of dollars for arts and technology programs. She joined the Tiburon Peninsula Little League board and the Tam High Foundation. The couple learned to scuba dive with their sons. And Lis, who played the flute at Tamalpais High and at the presti- gious conservatory at Oberlin College, often volunteered in the orchestra pit for local productions. Life was on track. They were watching their boys grow up. They were relieved and happy. "Cancer," Mike said, "was something we looked at in the rear view mirror." But in Janu- ary 2011, nearly 9 years after her first diagno- sis, they received shocking news: a routine check-up found the cancer has spread to her bones. Making life even more unsettling, Mike, like his twin brother before him, was diagnosed with a slow-growing prostate cancer. As an emotional outlet and to keep her wide circle of friends informed, Lis took to Caringbridge.org, where she wrote about her medical ordeal. "More often than you think, you cannot control all that life brings you," Lis wrote in one entry. "What you can control is your attitude." Forging Ahead Over the next three years, the couple bought a boat to speed across the bay. The family took vacations to London and Paris and scuba dived in Hawaii. And her new treat- ment appeared to be working, keeping the Above: Lis Fuchs with her mother Nancy and Dr. Pamela Munster at UCSF Medical Center discussing her treatment and side effects of taking the oral chemotherapy, Xeloda. 20 NORTH BAY WOMAN | F A L L 2 0 1 4

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