Jody Hedien crossed the finish line two years after her diagnosis
“I never thought that I would be the one in eight,” says BCRF supported Jody Hedien.
In October of 2022, just one week after her first-place finish in the Mission Bay triathlon, Jody got the call from her doctor that she had triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). A month earlier, she had noticed a lump in her breast, prompting her to get checked even though the results of her routine mammogram earlier that year had come back negative.
“I’m a triathlete, and I was training for an Ironman at the time. I had just won my division in a triathlon the week before I was diagnosed, so it was quite a shock,” Jody said.
TNBC is an aggressive subtype of breast cancer that is known to be fast growing and can be more difficult to treat because it lacks many targeted therapies. Nevertheless, Jody remained hopeful going into treatment: “A lot of progress has been made, and BCRF has played a big part in that,”
Jody’s treatment plan included a combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy that was based on findings from a groundbreaking clinical trial called Keynote-522 that was led by BCRF investigators. Three weeks into treatment, Jody’s tumor began to shrink, and by the end of her chemotherapy and immunotherapy treatments in January, the tumor had disappeared completely. Jody then underwent a successful double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery.
For Jody, biking and running is her “therapy, meditation, and relaxation all rolled into one,” and she was eager to get back to it after treatment. In the summer of 2023, Jody resumed training for her first Ironman 70.3-mile race—the same race she had to drop out of after her diagnosis. Having never competed at this distance before though, Jody felt she needed all the encouragement she could get, and she decided to fundraise for BCRF for more motivation.
On December 8th, 2024—just one day after her birthday—Jody crossed the finish line and completed 70.3 miles in honor, she says, of the $70.3 million in pioneering breast cancer research BCRF funded this year. Jody not only made it to the podium, but she also placed fifth in her age group and personally raised over $4,500 for research.
“I am so grateful to all of those who helped me through this difficult journey. Friends and family, doctors, and healthcare providers, the list is long, and I am so fortunate,” she said. “I am also grateful to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, whose commitment to research has contributed so much to the understanding and treatment of breast cancer since its inception in 1993.”
