Area woman, teammates walking for a cure for breast cancer

Her hair has grown back from the effects of chemotherapy yet Betty Baumann has no plans to color it. After several months of treatment for breast cancer, the Plato resident is looking forward.
The gray hair is a badge of honor after the fight Baumann has endured. She has no plans to color her hair again.
“I earned it,” she said.
Baumann and several friends will be in St. Cloud Oct. 13, participating in an American Cancer Society’s “Making Strides of Central Minnesota” fundraiser. The team is supporting Baumann and Hillary Karels, the stepdaughter of team captain Trisha Karels of Brownton. Baumann and Karels are longtime friends.
Baumann was formally diagnosed with breast cancer on December of 2017. Eight weeks later, Karels learned she, too, was fighting cancer. Karels, who lives in Zimmerman, is about six weeks behind Baumann on the treatment schedule, she said.
The team is one of several in the fundraiser. It expects to raise well over $1,000 for research for a cure into breast cancer and services to patients and their families. Members of the team have participated in ACS Relay for Life events previously. Baumann believes ACS provides great information for patients who likely feel overwhelmed after learning they have cancer.
“They gave me a book. I call it ‘cancer for dummies’,” Baumann said. “There’s so much information and so many appointments. The doctors give you so much information. It’s easy not to hear or process all the information.”

(For the complete story, see the Oct. 3 print edition of The Chronicle.)