For Barb Gargano, Walk for Hope is a chance to celebrate progress, reconnect with her care team, and help create possibilities for future patients
At 53, Barb Gargano was balancing caring for her father, raising children, and working full time in a senior role at a global company. Then, during a weekend trip with her husband in June 2024, she began feeling unwell.
A local clinic diagnosed her with Covid-19, but her condition continued to worsen after she returned home. When increasing pain sent her to the emergency room, a doctor told her that the pain in her side was from cancer. Further evaluation revealed a five-inch tumor on her adrenal gland and stage 4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
“The cancer was so aggressive, it had already started attacking all of the other organs,” Gargano says.
After an extended hospital stay and multiple rounds of chemotherapy, she remained determined to move forward and reached out to City of Hope Cancer Center Chicago.
There, she met Tulio Rodriguez, MD, a hematologist-oncologist who reviewed her diagnosis and treatment plan. He agreed that her local team was taking the right steps and encouraged her to keep sending medical records so he could stay informed and be prepared if her condition changed.
About six months later, after she had completed months of chemotherapy, Gargano learned that she had responded well to treatment but still had cancer. Her local oncologist told her there were no additional options available there, but when she returned to City of Hope, Dr. Rodriguez presented three specialized treatment options.
Together, Gargano and her care team selected an autologous stem cell transplant, which uses stem cells collected from a patient’s own body to help restore blood cell production after treatment. More than a year into remission, she has returned to the job she loves and to spending time with the people who matter most.
Now, Gargano is preparing for another meaningful milestone: participating in Walk for Hope.
During her first year of treatment, Gargano couldn’t get out of a hospital bed. When Walk for Hope came around the following year, she volunteered because she wasn’t sure she had the energy to walk. This year, she’s ready to take those steps.
“This will be the year that I walk the walk,” Gargano says.
For her, the Walk represents more than a physical milestone. It also offers an opportunity to reconnect with the people who cared for her, as well as her fellow patients. For Gargano, the event reminds her of that time, but in a different light.
Participating is also a way to give back to the research and care that helped make her recovery possible, she says, because she knows others will face the same frightening diagnosis she once received.
“Everybody who contributed to the Walk, through fundraising efforts, through everything else, literally saved my life,” she says. “And I’ll never not give that back. I’ll never not appreciate what that science did.”
As Gargano prepares to join hundreds of survivors, patients, caregivers, and supporters at Walk for Hope in Zion on Saturday, Oct. 3, she hopes others will walk alongside her.
Whether you register to walk, donate, or start a fundraiser, every step supports cancer research and compassionate care. To learn more or register, visit CityofHope.org/WalkforHope.
