Sarah Shelander
Editor

Watonwan County Relay for Life recognizes two cancer fighters each year as co-chairs. This year’s Relay for Life co-chairs are Stacey Stade and Kirsten Freitag.

Stade and Freitag shared their cancer journey and their time with Relay for Life with the Plaindealer.

Stacey Stade has lived in Watonwan County her whole life, having lived in St. James and then moved to Odin where she currently lives. For 31 years, she has been an elementary school teacher. Along with her career as a teacher and her pastimes, Stade has been a supporter and team member of the team Working Harder in the Watonwan Relay for Life. Working Harder is the team Stade’s mom and her mom’s husband made when he started his cancer journey.

Two years ago, Stade was diagnosed with Leiomyosarcoma, a cancer of the smooth muscle. It started as retroperitoneal, which means in her stomach, and then it spread to her lungs. Dr. Page Gernes at Mayo Clinic Health System – St. James, was the doctor who found Stade’s cancer after doctors in Mankato weren’t able to find anything. Stade credits Gernes to her being here today and being the one to get things rolling in finding her cancer.

In the first year of her fight, Stade had surgery which removed the entire tumor, but it came back as lung nodules.

“Ever since then, they have had me on active surveillance because it is a pretty rare and aggressive cancer,” said Stade. “Chemo is not really effective on it, certainly not effective at curing it but it can stop the progression of it.”

As her fighting journey is on going Stade said she is feeling great, looks great and you could never guess she has stage four cancer as she is walking around like a normal person.

Support comes from a wealth of people, such as her family, especially her mom’s husband who is also battling cancer, and an online support group that has daily posts of journeys.

“They all are very supportive,” said Stade about her family. “I think they follow my lead. I have such a strong faith and appreciate every day I get to be here.”

Relay for Life has been a part of Stade’s life for a little bit, but last year it held a special moment for her as she was able to walk with her friend’s daughter, who is the same age as her daughter. She will also be at the relay for

Being a cancer fighter who is feeling so good, Stade does not think she was worthy enough but she is honored to be named co-chair for this year’s relay.

“I don’t really feel like I am worthy to do it, because even though I know I have cancer I feel so good and I am living my best life,” said Stade about being co-chair. “I am very honored and I know it helps a lot of people, it (Relay for Life) is a great organization. I hope I can represent other people.”

Kirsten Freitag is not a stranger to the Watonwan County area as she was born and raised in Moutain Lake and moved to St. James in 1976. People know the Freitags as they have owned the construction company Wilcon since 1986.

Relay for Life has been a part of Freitag’s life since the early 2000s when her sister was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her church AES Ministries is also involved with Relay for Life and Freitag is very involved with the relay through it. Being so involved she has been to many of Watonwan County Relay for Lifes in the past couple of decades.

Like her sister Freitag has been fighting breast cancer she was first diagnosed in 2018, at the time it was caught early and it had a low chance of recurrence. The remission stage of her first bout ended in January when she was diagnosed with HER 2+ breast cancer.

“Every breast cancer diagnosis is so individual. This one is entirely different than my first,” said Freitag. “It is on the same side on the same so they do call it a recurrence, but it was stage 2 at this point harder to find after reconstruction and everything.”

As this bout of cancer is HER2 it requires a year-long treatment plan with chemotherapy in the winter for three months along with immunotherapy, then she had surgery in May, radiation in July, and another round of immunotherapy. The goal of Freitag’s treatment plan is curative, she said things have been going very well and its a long process. Mayo Health System in Rochester has been the care team Freitag has worked with for both of her bouts with cancer, she gives them nothing but high praises for their wonderful work and how caring they have been.

Support systems is one part of the fight against cancer that everyone needs. Freitag’s support has come from her family, especially her sisters and husband. Her husband she said has her chauffeur, gopher and a rockstar she is so thankful for his support.

With a history as long as Freitag’s with the Relay for Life, she was surprised by being named one of this year’s co-chairs. Even though it was a surprise she finds it as another way to share her story and valuable encouragement with others.

“I think it is always good to tell your story and encourage people to stay on top of getting regular checkups and not be afraid of treatments,”said Freitag.

This year’s Watonwan County Relay for Life will be on August 24 at the fairgrounds from 3-10 p.m.