Starting at 8 a.m. Friday morning, 40 women with polished pink toenails will step off on a three-day walk to cover 60 miles of territory from Harvard to Concord, raise well over $100,000 for cancer research and patient care, and provide priceless memories of a journey that many walkers say is one of the best things they’ve ever done. The Just ’Cause Breast Cancer Walk, which benefits the integrative therapy program at the Virginia Thurston Healing Garden and research at the Gillette Center for Breast Cancer, is now in its fifth year of bonding women whose lives have been touched by the disease. Sarah Mitchell, who started the walk with three other women five years ago, is looking forward to taking that first step onto Bolton Road again this year.

“Being involved with this group is just amazing,” she said.

Before starting Just ’Cause, Mitchell, Jo Edmunds, Tina Flaherty, and Noreen Beck were all participants in the Avon walk to benefit breast cancer research. However, they were dismayed by the amount of money that went into administrative overhead, not research: all of them wanted their efforts to benefit cancer patients more directly. There was a personal element, too: Beck was suffering from metastatic breast cancer, and, as a complement to her traditional medical treatment, was receiving care from the Healing Garden. The four conceived of an event patterned after the Avon walk, but with all money raised going directly into care or research. “We just decided we could do it,” Mitchell said. And they have. Last year, 37 walkers raised over $115,000 for the garden, and this year’s group of 40 was well on its way to a similar figure at press time.

Located on four bucolic acres on Bolton Road, the Virginia Thurston Healing Garden has served women with breast cancer since 2000. “The mission [of the Healing Garden] is to provide services to women through support groups, complementary therapies approved by the National Institutes of Health, educational programs, and expressive therapies in a natural and healing setting,” said Assistant Director Lana Heino Roman in an interview Tuesday, May 1. Roman, who has been treated for breast cancer twice, has a deeply personal stake in the walk, backed by her experience both as a staff member and a client. She emphasized the importance of the funds raised by the walk to the Healing Garden’s mission to serve as many women as possible.

Associate Director Julie Seavy expanded on this idea in an interview in the garden itself, which features a number of semi-secluded sitting areas perfect for quiet conversation or private meditation. Seavy, a registered nurse and graduate of the Harvard divinity school, spoke about the garden’s unique mission. “Medicine works toward a medical cure, but the Healing Garden focuses on healing,” she said, while carefully noting that all practices are sanctioned by traditional medicine. Healing means addressing the whole spectrum of needs each person presents, Seavy continued, including their physical, social, and spiritual needs. “If we’re not attending to all those aspects of a human being, then we’re not attending to them as a whole,” she said.

Seavy also talked about the fact that while patients are often declared cured from a medical point of view, their need for support often increases sharply after treatment is curtailed. This need for continuing rehabilitation and care is similar to that of a cardiac patient after a heart attack, she said, because healing goes on long after the defining health event has been cured. To serve this need for support, the Healing Garden facilitates a number of support groups, each with a specific focus. These include groups for those with advanced breast cancer, those newly diagnosed, those who have lived with the disease for many years, and the partners of those affected. Recently, Seavy added, the garden has begun to focus on educational programs about cancer prevention, a program she hopes to expand with funding from a grant program. “We’re doing something new here, and it’s very cutting edge,” she said.

Resident Karen Shea walks to be able to provide care to as many women as the Healing Garden can serve, she said, and she loves being part of the group that does it. She has been training with fellow resident and walker Terry Symula for the last several months, getting in shape for what can be a real physical challenge. The first day of the walk is a 20-mile route that begins and ends at the Healing Garden, winding through Harvard and surrounding towns. Leading the group for the first day are the breast cancer survivors, who are given first place in honor of their experience. Saturday, the group will leave the Healing Garden again and walk to the Colonial Inn in Concord, where—in true girl’s-night-out fashion—they will have dinner together and spend the night. The walkers return to Harvard Sunday afternoon, stopping a quarter-mile from the finish to regroup as a team, and will celebrate the end of the walk with a barbecue dinner in the barn of a Just ’Cause friend.

Now in her third year of walking, Symula teared up for a moment when asked what she most enjoyed about the whole event. “It’s a great experience,” she said. “I’m so inspired by the others, especially the survivors. It’s a privilege to be able to participate.”