Eighth annual race for the cure: 94 and eager to help
Published: March 21, 2006
Ruth Protas is 94 and blind.
But that’s not stopping her from training to walk in this year’s 2006 Southern Arizona Race for the Cure on April 2.
The fundraiser at Reid Park is sponsored by the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
“Nobody in my family has had breast cancer and I’ve never done this before,” Protas said.
She said she feels people “are always helping me” and “I want to be on the giving side.”
“I must do something. I am so psyched about it. I hope everything goes well.” Protas said.
Last April the race raised a record-breaking $808,000, surpassing the goal of $650,000 set by the cancer foundation.
This year, organizers are hoping for more.
Protas hopes the money she raises for breast cancer research can make a difference in someone’s life someday.
“Then I’ll feel my life was worth living,” she said.
As a race participant, Protas must collect her own sponsors, who pledge money to the breast cancer foundation.
“I’m getting a lot of money,” she said. “I never liked asking for money but once I got started it was easier.”
A maintenance man at the retirement apartment home where she lives made her a cardboard box with a slip on it announcing her participation in the race. This way she can easily distribute fliers without having to search around for potential sponsors.
The one thing Protas never feels is sorry for herself.
“I never said ‘Why me?’ when I became blind about 13 years ago,” she said. “Although I’m blind, I’m normal.”
Her husband, an executive at a luxury watchmaking company, died in 1973. They lived in New Jersey and he worked in New York.
Protas came to the United States as a young girl after her father was killed by Bolsheviks in Poland because he was Jewish.
Her mother brought her and four siblings to this country when she was 8.
“The day after I arrived I turned 9,” she recalled.
Her son, a physician, lives in Phoenix, where she lived until moving to Tucson a few years ago to be close to her two grandsons and their families.
Protas shops at Trader Joe’s, makes her own breakfast and lunch and takes a lot of vitamins.
She dresses herself, having matched her wardrobe by color and identifies the pieces with a beaded safety pin system.
“I like being independent,” she said.
She does laps on her balcony, in her kitchen and walks on a treadmill.
Her grandson and his wife train with her on weekends.
“It was her idea, not ours,” said Josh Protas. “Grandma exercises daily.”
Is he worried she may fall and hurt herself?
“I’m not concerned about that at all,” he said. “She’s in such great shape. She dances.”
Ruth Protas said her doctors have offered to walk with her and that her grandson will hold her hand during her “race” walk.
She’s still not sure just what she’ll wear on her feet on race day.
“I have a bone spur on my right big toe. I tried sneakers. I tried loafers.”
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