Cycle of life

Anne Feeley has covered a lot of ground in recent years, from baker to brain-cancer survivor to bicyclist. Now, she will cover a great deal more: 4,170 miles more.

Feeley - who founded the ubiquitous expat bakery, Bakeshop Praha, in 1997 - was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2006. Four years later, Feeley will bike across the United States - from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. - to raise money for cancer research.

Now 55, Feeley was on vacation in New York City in April 2006 when she began to notice something strange.

"I started to slur my words a bit," she said.

One relative thought she had a drinking problem.

After returning to Prague, Feeley woke up one morning and "couldn't communicate at all," she says.

After initially thinking it might be a stroke, an emergency MRI revealed she had a brain tumor.

She went to London, where she had been using a doctor to help treat arthritis, for immediate surgery. Feeley's tumor was diagnosed as glioblastoma multiforme, the deadliest form of brain cancer, and the variation that killed U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy just 16 months after he was diagnosed.

Eighty percent of people with glioblastoma multiforme die within 15 months, only 5 percent survive more than three years, and only one in 5,000 survive for longer than 10 years, according the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

Feeley fears were further stoked by the memory of her mother, who died when Feeley was just 12 years old.

"I was told, 'Prepare to die, say your goodbyes,' " Feeley says. "I decided to fight, mostly because of my children. That is not why I made it. I was just lucky."

Her two and a half years of treatment included chemotherapy and radiation.

"From the day out of the hospital, I started training," she says. "It just made me feel in control."

Feeley biked back and forth to her treatments, did yoga and recalls her first attempt at running, when she travelled only seven steps, while still carrying staples in her head from the surgery.

Within a year, Feeley had run a half-marathon. She went on to complete the "Three Peak Challenge," scaling three UK mountains in a single day. Now, she does three cardio sessions per week, three pilate sessions and takes three long bike rides weekly to train for the cross-country journey. She also blogs about her progress.

"It's an endurance event," Feeley says. "I am a middle-aged woman, and one thing we have is endurance."

Feeley will be joined on the trip by Gundula Hennig, her friend and trainer, and the family dog, Walter. The ride begins April 9 and will cover an average between 50 and 70 miles each day. The trio will cross nine states before entering the District of Columbia and completing the trip July 15.

After living in Prague for 15 years, Feeley sold Bakeshop Praha and moved with her family to London in 2007 as she underwent treatment. She still lives there with her husband, Jonathan. Her two children (Molly, 22, and Sadé, 19) are now both in college. Molly graduates from the University of Chicago in May.

The particular nature of glioblastoma multiforme means that some cancerous cells are never fully removed from the body, so relapses are more than common. Asked what her prognosis is, Feeley offers a decidedly non-medical response.

"Live for today," she says. "Life is not a dress rehearsal. We are all going to die. Somehow along the way I forgot that I was going to die."

Benjamin Cunningham can be reached at
bcunningham@praguepost.com