Tara Ready is an avid runner and cyclist and budding triathlete. With every new athletic project, she takes on, she has a definite vision of success.
“With everything I do, I like to have a goal and that keeps me accountable,” the League City resident said.
In June of 2016 she found a new goal that had nothing to do with athletics — she set her mind on beating breast cancer.
“I work in oil and gas and have a pretty busy schedule with long hours; so I was overdue on my mammogram,” the Hess financial manager said.
When she talked about being late for the screening, her manager told her, “’This is important. You really need to make time for this.’”
Her boss then shared that she had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. Ready decided to get her mammogram sooner rather than later.
“I was diagnosed with breast cancer as well,” she said. “Luckily, it was in the early stages; so I didn’t need to have a mastectomy or anything like that. I did have to have a lumpectomy and then went to 32 sessions of radiation. No chemo — thank the Lord — and then basically I recovered.
“I’m four years cancer-free, which is awesome.”
Ready realized that she was lucky to get the diagnosis she did; so she decided to promote breast cancer awareness on her own.
“I try to give back because I was very fortunate that it was caught early,” she said. “I was fortunate to come through to the other side and I know a lot of people haven’t been so lucky; so I do what I can to promote awareness by making sure people keep up with their mammograms and health appointments and also try to do my bit for charity so that others can benefit from my experience.”
Given her penchant for running, doing her part for charity has been relatively easy. Over the last two years she has taken part in the Houston edition of the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, and her team, Run for the Girls, has finished in the top 100 of team fundraisers.
Ready reckons she raised about $1,800 for breast cancer awareness in 2019.
Ready, 48, is originally from London, and moved to the United States when Hess transferred her to Houston.
She said she was not a runner until five years ago.
“I was finding it hard to meet a group of decent people; so one day I decided I wanted to run a half-marathon and was looking for a running group,” she said.
She found Bay Area Fit and started out slow.
“I started in the walking group and within a few weeks I said, ‘I’m sure I can shuffle along;’ so I started running.
“Then one of the coaches persuaded me to do a full marathon; so I kind of went all in.”
She has since run the Chevron Houston Marathon four times.
A triathlon was on the books for this year, but was wiped out by the pandemic.
“As my husband would say, it was kind of an early midlife crisis,” she said. “There are worse things I could get involved with, and through the running community I have made some lifelong friends. It’s amazing.”
John DeLapp is a freelance writer. He can be contacted at texdelapp@gmail.com.
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October 16, 2020 at 02:30AM
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‘Ready’ a fitting last name for this breast cancer survivor - Houston Chronicle
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