Video

Dolores Mason finishes her first triathlon after fighting breast cancer 12 years ago. Watch »

MICHELLE CASSEL / Staff

Maria Mason (left) kisses her mother Dolores Mason after they crossed the finish line at the Danskin Womens Triathlon in Orlando on Mother's Day May 11th.

More Neapolitan

• Review: A drama that makes ‘Indian Blood’ boil
• Review: Tea, with splash of blackmail and lump of adultery
• Health Briefs: Dec. 2, 2008

Tell us about it

• What would you add to this story? Tell us what we missed.
• Do you have photos from this event? Documents we need to see? Share with us.
• Upload photos & videos
• More ways to get your stuff online and in the paper.

STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

Share and Enjoy [?]

There are many ways to die, Dolores Mason told her two grandchildren 12 years ago. You could get hit by a car. You could fall down a flight of stairs. But the breast cancer diagnosis Mason had just received?

“I’m not going to die from this, you understand,” Mason told them.

At age 66, Mason has now fought through her cancer, vertigo, obesity, depression, diabetes and lymphedema. Her health problems are ongoing, as is her will to overcome them.

I met Mason in December on the ninth green of the Merrill Lynch Shootout, where she was working as a volunteer. She was eager to discuss an unusual birthday gift she had just received from her three children.

Her children had hired a retired triathlon coach named Mary Ann Wallace to train her to race in the Danskin Women’s Triathlon at Walt Disney World on Mother’s Day. The triathlon is a sprint triathlon consisting of a .75-mile swim, 9-mile bike ride and 2-mile run through Disney’s Magic Kingdom. The event raises funds and helps bring awareness for breast cancer.

Mason was incredulous.

“I can’t do this, I’m too old!” she told her daughter Maria Mason, a triathlon trainer living in New York City.

“Mom, you don’t have to worry about it. I trained a woman that was 55 and she finished. I know you can do it.” Maria told her mother. Later Maria would join the race to support her mother.

“She’s always looking out for the rest of us,” said Maria, who finished right behind her mother in the May race. Mom at 971 out of a field of 1,165 and Maria at 972. “She doesn’t do anything that really makes her feel good about herself and this was something that I saw was a chance to do that.”

For the next five months I followed Dolores, filming her push through the physical and emotional training Mary Ann had set forth. Wallace met with Mason twice a week at Lowdermilk Park to work on swimming, biking and running. On her days off, Mason would continue to train and do exercises assigned by Wallace. That meant roughly nine hours a week to prepare for the triathlon.

I asked Dolores what kept her motivated.

“I want to do it for all the people that have breast cancer or have had breast cancer,” she said. “I also want to do it for my children, my husband and myself. To prove to myself that I can do something.”

---

E-mail Michelle Cassel at mccassel@naplesnews.com