Provided

Ingrid Nuñez ’14 at last year's race.

On March 30, 2011, Ingrid Nuñez ’14, then a freshman in the School of Hotel Administration, was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. The illness came as a shock to all, as Nuñez maintained a healthy lifestyle and had never smoked.

Since her diagnosis Nuñez not only has waged a personal battle against her cancer, but has made it her mission to help others suffering from the disease by joining the Jill’s Legacy Advisory Board to the Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation, which aims to “increase the stagnant 15.5 percent survival rate of the world’s No. 1 cancer killer – lung cancer.”

Nuñez’s involvement with the Addario Foundation began when she was approached in April 2011 by the friends of Jill Costello, a 22-year-old college student at University of California, Berkeley, who lost her battle with lung cancer in 2010, just one year after being diagnosed. Hitting close to home, Nuñez was inspired and organized a 5k run at Cornell that raised $49,000 for the foundation.

Since the first run Sept. 29, 2011, Cornell students have come together to support the cause, and the third annual race will take place Oct. 20 at noon at the Cornell Plantations.

‘Your Next Step is the Cure’

The Cornell 5k in honor of Ingrid Nunez is Oct. 20. Registration is at 11 a.m., with the race starting at noon. The preregistration fee is $20, $25 to register at the event.

Location: Cornell Plantations.

Donate online here.

“I think it’s been a success because people see me and don’t want me to be alone,” says Nuñez, who writes a blog about her experiences. “This year will be huge. In addition to many varsity sports teams and sororities and fraternities, I’m hoping to get people from Gannett and Cayuga Medical to participate.”

Nuñez also sits on the foundation’s Young Adult Advisory Board with the founder, CEO, physicians and scientists who lead the foundation in fighting the disease that strikes one in every 14 people.

This past July at a conference in San Francisco, Nuñez became involved in the clinical study “Genomics of Young Lung Cancer,” which seeks to determine whether cancer in patients under age 40 harbors a distinctive spectrum of genetic mutations.

“Since no one can tell me why I have this cancer, being a part of such research involving people and doctors from all over the world is meaningful and exciting,” she says. “I hope to become much more involved once I graduate Cornell.”

In the meantime, Nuñez maintains a busy schedule with monthly chemotherapy treatments on top of her academic work and extracurricular activities. When asked how she manages, Nunez shrugged and replied with a smile, “I want to live.” And she’s doing just that as her disease moves in the right direction – “I’m down to one visible tumor instead of several.”

Nuñez says that the personal support she receives from her fellow board members inspires her to make the fundraisers at Cornell a success. She remembers the first event at Cornell as “the most beautiful day of my entire life.”

Nunez and her supporters have already raised more than $13,000 this year and hope that in the weeks leading up to the event that number climbs to $25,000.

Abigail Warren ’15 is a writer intern at the Cornell Chronicle.