Woman to Scale New Heights in Cancer Battle

Raleigh, N.C. — Harriet Farb set a New Year's goal that's higher than most – 19,399 feet to be exact.

On Jan. 11, Farb plans to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania – it's the highest mountain in Africa and the highest walkable mountain in the world – to raise money for the Lineberger Cancer Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

"If I can give back to the people who mean so much to me, that's exactly what I want to do," the 66-year-old Raleigh woman said.

Farb has battled cancer three times since 1989. She was in remission when she agreed to do the "Climb for Cancer," but less than a week later, she discovered the cancer had returned.

"I'm Stage 4 breast cancer. There's no cure," she said.

But Farb, a life-long fitness buff, refused to have her climb derailed. She trains by walking around Shelley Lake in Raleigh with a weighted backpack.

"There's a metaphor that cancer patients climb mountains every day, and this doesn't seem monumental to me because I think every single day is a challenge for me," she said.

Farb will make the week-long climb up Mount Kilimanjaro with her brother. She said she hopes to raise $10,000 for patient support services at the UNC cancer center, and she hopes her journey will be an inspiration to others living with cancer.

"It's important for people to know that cancer is not necessarily a death sentence. It is another obstacle in your path, and you deal with it day by day. That's all you can do," she said.