Dog adoption, allergy led woman to cancer discovery

If not for a Jack Russell terrier with horrible allergies and sores around its neck, runner Bobbi Moody of Snohomish might not have won her battle against colon cancer.

The 45-year-old woman has spent the past 2 ½ years since the successful removal of a tumor in her colon entering every race in the Puget Sound region tied to cancer.

She's not specific. She has run, hiked and biked dozens of miles for prostate cancer, leukemia and breast cancer.

In the process, she has raised thousands of dollars for research and has achieved her greatest goal: to become one of the small voices for cancer awareness across the country.

"I'm slow, but I'm out there," said Moody. "I would hope to inspire other people to get involved."

But first there was Jack, the terrier Moody says is the chief reason she didn't become one of the roughly 55,000 people who die each year from colon cancer in the United States.

Moody, a banking loan consultant at Washington Mutual, bought Jack at the Bellevue Humane Society in late 2004 as a companion for her other dog.

Jack was sickly and sorry-looking, but his personality convinced Moody that he was the right choice.

Unfortunately, only a couple of months after she brought him home, Moody realized she was allergic to the dog. Her eyes would water and she would sneeze whenever she got close to him. She got a sinus infection that wouldn't go away for weeks despite antibiotics.

Finally she started visiting specialists. One of her doctors gave her a blood test.

The morning after the test, she got a phone call.

"[The doctor] says, 'Mrs. Moody, are you bleeding out of some part of your body?' " said Moody.

Apparently Moody was so anemic that her red blood cell count was less than half of what it should have been.

The anemia had weakened her immune system, something she said she might not have noticed if not for her allergy to Jack.

"I think I was just sort of numb," said Moody about her diagnosis. "I was so blind to cancer that it still hadn't sunk in."

Moody was lucky. Because her cancer was diagnosed early, the tumor was fully removed and she didn't have to endure chemotherapy or other harsh follow-up treatments.

Only a month after her surgery, which also included a full hysterectomy because of her high risk for ovarian cancer, she ran a 3 ½-mile race.

She estimates she participates in about 10 events a year, including Hike for Discovery, an annual day hike that takes place in different areas of the country to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

In 2007, she raised $4,700 for Hike for Discovery through sponsorships from family and friends. The previous year, she raised $4,300.

"She's really inspirational," said Becky Talevich, coach of the Washington/Alaska chapter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Moody didn't initially tell anyone in the Hike for Discovery program that she had colon cancer.

"She was doing it because she loves hiking, and she really believes in the research and the cause," said Talevich. "It wasn't about her. She was doing it for everyone."

Moody is adamant that she is involved in cancer races to raise awareness, not to score the best time.

The self-described "back-of-the-pack" athlete started running seven years ago after a doctor prescribed the exercise as treatment for a bad disc in her back.

She started out at about three miles a day several times a week and slowly increased her training until she started entering triathlons in 2002. When a friend signed her up for her first large-scale race, Moody couldn't even swim and had to learn to be able to compete.

"I was scared to death," she said. But she pushed herself to do it.

As for Jack, his health problems improved with the help of drugs, but Moody was still so allergic to him after her surgery that she had to give him up. She found him a home with a family in Redmond. (Her other dog has a different type of dander that doesn't make her allergic.)

"I think things happen in your life for a reason," said Moody. "For some reason, [Jack] was the avenue for me finding out what was wrong with me."