The Survivor Who Jumps OUT OF PLANES to Raise Money for The Rose

Dorothy: [00:00:00] Why would you jump out of a perfectly good airplane? Well, for this woman, the door was open and she just took the leap. But she did more than that. She was a nail tech. Her husband had left her. She had no insurance. She had to earn her keep. And now, she was facing breast cancer. But once she went through The Rose, she promised Dr. Melillo that she would pay her back someday. And she has. Hundreds of thousands of dollars this woman has raised by jumping out of an airplane. And she invites you to do it too.

Let’s Talk About Your Breast, a different kind of podcast presented to you by The Rose Breast Center of Excellence and a Texas treasure. You’re going to hear frank discussions about tough topics, and you’re going to learn why knowing about your breast could save your life. Join us as we hear another story [00:01:00] and we answer those tough questions that you may have.

Hi, I’m Dorothy Gibbons and I’m the CEO and co founder of The Rose Breast Imaging Center of Excellence. We’re here to talk about your breast and to bring you information on all different kind of subjects that could have anything to do with your breast. Today we have with us a really remarkable woman who has done some things that I don’t think many of us will ever try. She’s a skydiver. She’s a national and state award winning skydiver with different jobs and different competition. She’s a non profit founder and she’s a survivor. And she’s also a business woman. She has her own business. So, Marian, we are so glad to have you here today. Tell us a little bit about how you were introduced to The [00:02:00] Rose.

Marian: Well, I got breast cancer and I didn’t have any insurance. And it was at a time in my life when I was single, newly divorced, and couldn’t afford insurance. And, I got a, in fact, I mean the mammogram that I got that diagnosed me was a free mammogram. And, I was pretty surprised to even get a free mammogram. Then, I found out about The Rose, and then I found that The Rose would help me without insurance. And they did. And it was amazing. And I told them that I was going to pay them back for helping me. And so, that’s what I did.

Dorothy: I remember the story of you telling Dixie that, Dr. Melillo, that you were going to pay her back after you had asked her: How do you do this?

And she said, Oh, people donate. And [00:03:00] then, uh, Dr. Melillo kind of patted you and said, Sure, when you win the lotto, you know, I’ll be watching for that.

Marian: Yes, she did.

Dorothy: She certainly never expected, uh, you or your organization to do anything like you’ve already done. So you were divorced. That was a life changing event that, So you didn’t have insurance anymore, but you come with a history in your family of breast cancer. I mean, you’d been pretty faithful about getting your mammograms until then.

Marian: Yes, I had always, I got a mammogram every year since I was 35 years old because my mother had breast cancer. And on that particular year, which was 2008, I didn’t get a mammogram because I didn’t think I could afford it.

And, uh, one of my clients told me that she had gotten a free mammogram appointment, and I said, give me the phone number. And, uh, I got one of the last appointments left. And that was a [00:04:00] miracle. But I was just apologizing to everybody. I’m sorry I don’t have any insurance. They said that’s okay. That’s what we’re here for. So it—

Dorothy: You didn’t expect The Rose to look like it did. I mean, you heard free clinic. Or you heard charity clinic.

Marian: Oh gosh, I thought I was going to be sitting outside on the sidewalk, standing in line or something, in, in, in front of a little, and it’s in a shopping center, you know, I drove up to the to The Rose and it was a beautiful place two story with a beautiful foyer and Granite, but I guess they’re granite floors or whatever kind of shiny floors. And they took care of me in 20 minutes and and I didn’t have to wait all day.

Dorothy: That’s one of the things we really strive for and we really strive to make sure that whether you’re insured or uninsured— it really makes no difference. Doctors don’t know who they’re caring for, and we try not to make a [00:05:00] big deal out of it. You sign in.

Marian: Yes, I was treated with dignity and respect, and that was the biggest thing for me at that time. Because I was really ashamed that I didn’t have insurance. I’d had it all my life.

Dorothy: It’s a hard time and it’s hard to ask for help. It’s hard to know that you’re going to have to ask for help.

Marian: Yes, and no one had ever helped me like that before.

Dorothy: So, you were diagnosed and then our navigators got you into treatment.

Marian: Mm hmm.

Dorothy: And tell us just a little bit about your treatment.

Marian: I had to have a biopsy. And that came back positive, and then, um, I had to have a lumpectomy, and Dr. Melillo did that. And when she told me about my positive biopsy, that’s when I told her I was going to pay her back. I was absolutely amazed. I said, who started this place? [00:06:00] And she says, me and another lady started this place. And I was just amazed at the, you know, it, it, it, The Rose is an amazing place. It really, really is.

Dorothy: You were so surprised that we had those kind of programs. I can remember you, you saying, uh, this, this can’t be, this, this doesn’t work like this. This is how the world is, you know. And you were, you were just so grateful, as most of our sponsored ladies are.

Marian: Mm hmm.

Dorothy: So you went through your treatment, you had the lumpectomy, you had radiation therapy, and, uh, You’re good to go. I know that you’ve continued with your, your annual mammograms. But what you’ve done that many of our sponsored ladies never have the ability to or whatever it was that moved you in this direction. You’ve given back to The Rose more than one time over many [00:07:00] times. And you started Jump for The Rose.

Marian: Before my surgery, I had plans to go out to California and attend an all women’s skydiving jump. And it was called Jump for the Cause. And it was for, it was for breast cancer. And I had gone out there, and I wasn’t on that jump, but I was there, and I was able to watch some of the ladies come in. And I was very inspired by the lady that organized it.

And she told, the Ladies there the jumpers there that um, this was going to be the last year. She was going to do it. She had done it for several years and for them to go to their own states and start their own jump for the cause in their state. So after my surgery was over I missed I only had a couple of stitches. So I only [00:08:00] missed one weekend of skydiving and so then I got you know back to skydiving and I told one of the girls I was jumping with, I said, I’d like to start something like Jump for the Cause, but I want to call it Jump for The Rose, and I told her what had happened and that what The Rose had done for me, and she just was all over it.

So pretty soon had a pretty big group of ladies that wanted to do that. So we had an event in October of that year, and that was 2010. And we had, uh, a lot of ladies came out and we achieved a skydiving record on that day. And everybody loved it and I thought okay. Well, this was fun. They were like they were they kept saying— Let’s do it again And I wasn’t expecting to do it again. I thought one and done, you know Uh, but now it’s been every year every [00:09:00] october. We have jump for The Rose and it’s gotten to be a kind of a tradition and it’s known worldwide. And one of the things that we do is Uh, we have a raffle and we sell raffle tickets worldwide and last year one of our, the winner of our big raffle last year was in Romania.

Yeah, and uh It’s uh, it’s just gotten the jump for The Rose has a life of its own down It’s taken off. It’s got so many people who expect it and want to help and It’s it’s like I say, it’s like raising it’s been like raising a child and uh, it’s been very satisfying and rewarding for me and this whole experience has really, I have to say sometimes that breast cancer is the best thing that ever happened to me.

Dorothy: Oh, uh, yes. To start an organization from [00:10:00] scratch and to see it grow like it has, that first check was like $11,600 that you brought us that year?

Marian: $11,329 in some odd cents.

Dorothy: And then, The largest check you brought us was

Marian: $76,000.

Dorothy: And so to date with 10, 11 jumps under—

Marian: Actually, we’ve had 13 events.

Dorothy: Ah!

Marian: No, we’ve had 12 events I’m, sorry and and with those 12 events we have raised over $302,000.

Dorothy: So you’ve certainly given back to to The Rose and you’ve certainly helped a lot of women who were in the same spot you were have mammograms or ultrasounds or biopsies that that money has meant so much to our overall fundraising, but especially because we tell your story then you tell your story and then women who would never have even thought that [00:11:00] about having their mammogram come to us Because they’re uninsured. They don’t they don’t think that way.

Marian: Right.

Dorothy: So you’ve done a great job of telling folks that there is somewhere they could go and being so open with your own story. It’s not easy to admit you didn’t have insurance or—

Marian: No.

Dorothy: You know, you’d lost so much during that time. And, and, in 2008, didn’t you have Was it that when Ike came through and you also were dealing with home—, things—?

Marian: Oh yeah, and I had, yeah, my home had been damaged and I had to move and that was a strain on my finances.

Dorothy: Oh absolutely.

Marian: And then on top of that, to get breast cancer, it was like, really?

Dorothy: So, you talked a little bit about Jump for The Rose being international. Did you ever think that that was what was going to happen to it? Did you, did you dream that big? Is this something that you really thought would go on?

Marian: Well Um in the beginning, I never would have dreamed it but as things started [00:12:00] happening yearly, we started having write ups in magazines in other countries talking about jump for The Rose and Pictures I had a wonderful photographer who was world famous for Pictures and making movies and skydiving scenes in movies and he got some of my pictures and a magazine in italy. And another one down in south america. And so we still you know, we still are now and got people all over the world that come to our facebook page and get information.

Dorothy: You have how many jumps I was trying to remember how you say it.

Marian: I’ve got 2,342 jumps

Dorothy: And you’ve been an instructor for a while. You’ve shown people how to—

Marian: Yeah, I was I was a skydiving coach and helped people who Uh had gotten their license and when they’re first [00:13:00] first started out. Showed them how to fly their bodies because that’s what we do is we fly our body.

Dorothy: And one time you said to me that every time you jump you’re having to save your life.

Marian: Oh, yes.

Dorothy: And I always thought how appropriate for Jump for The Rose because what you’re doing is helping to save other lives.

Marian: Mm hmm.

Dorothy: So now tell us what goes on at the event. I mean, people come, there’s a raffle, but there’s other things that are happening through the whole weekend.

Marian: Well, we’ve got people that come from others parts of the states. I mean other states And they are what we call load organizers and they will gather people together and Decide and they come up with a really fun way to do a jump and they you know— There might be four people in the jump or there might be 30 people in the jump. And they practice everything on the ground and it’s a lot of fun [00:14:00] to watch them because they’re they’re doing the jump on the ground. I move it around and we call it dirt diving.

So they’re dirt diving. And, um, then they go up and they skydive it. And, uh, we’ve got We’ve got t shirts and jerseys that are designed each year, each year for the event. And we’ll have people there, have that all set up to sell those. We’ll be selling raffle tickets. And we’ve got some interesting raffle items that are being donated. We’ve got lots of good swag. Stuff to give away for a donation and just mainly jump for The Rose will be selling raffle tickets.

Dorothy: Right, but people also have an opportunity to do a tandem drop.

Marian: Oh, yeah It’s a perfect opportunity for anyone who’s never jumped before to come and [00:15:00] experience a tandem skydive that’s when you’re you’re strapped to a very very knowledgeable, uh skydiving instructor. He will take you on a ride.

Dorothy: And I know you, you were with me when I did the tandem.

Marian: Yes.

Dorothy: Yes, you were right beside me and I, I remember, there were so, that was the most fun day I had ever had up till then. It was just, it was incredible. And you know, you, they take you through all the training or the: Here’s what you need to do. Here’s how you, when you need to do it.

Marian: Mm-Hmm.

Dorothy: And I was so good. I, I, I knew to, I think you were the one that told me, keep smiling. Otherwise, your, your cheeks will go up and down, up and down, up and down. and I was so good about how you said to hold your legs and all those kind of things, but I remember the guy saying, now, when we hit so many thousand feet, you need to pull the rip cord. The—

Marian: Yeah.

Dorothy: The, the jet—

Marian: The rip cord.

Dorothy: So I, I was [00:16:00] really enjoying it. And then all of a sudden I felt the. Parachute thing come out and I went, oh, I forgot that part Of course, they never let you do it by yourself, but it was just a wonderful experience And I would encourage anybody anybody to to do this at least once just you know Just to Have that experience.

Of course, I got teased a lot about why would I jump out of a perfectly good airplane? You said I was going to be asked that. I cannot tell you how many people said, Are you kidding? Why would you do that? But it’s, it’s an exciting, fun day, and you get to try something different. Besides, all of that is going to raise us money for, for women. It’s, it’s a very unique, very unique organization.

Marian: Yeah. The reason you jump out of a perfectly good airplane is because the door was open.

Dorothy: That is true, that is true.

Marian: And I jumped down [00:17:00] at Skydive Spaceland. It’s in Rose Sharon, south of Houston. It’s an excellent place to go and have, and do your first tandem jump.

Dorothy: I think one of the things that, stunned me when I Went the first time was that the skydivers pack their own parachute

Marian: Oh, yeah.

Dorothy: You really have to be pretty confident to know that you’ve packed it right. And and trust that it’s going to open and, you know, there’s so many different facets to this that I don’t think you know people have never done it would even consider. And it’s just it’s back to that thing of taking care of your own parachute and, knowing that you are saving your life every time, you are having to do certain things to be sure you, you make it through that whole thing. It’s just, it’s so similar to a breast cancer journey. You, you had to pack your own parachute to get through it.

Marian: Oh yes, yes. [00:18:00] Yeah, and it was just like, the one time I packed it wrong, and when it opened up, I looked at it and said, Oh, I think I remember when I did that, and then I pulled. My, uh, the cord to get rid of it and then that pulled my reserve.

So we’ve always got a reserve. When we pack our own parachutes, we know that we have a reserve and it will be there if we need it. And it’s packed by someone who is very, very good at it.

Dorothy: Makes sense.

Marian: Yeah.

Dorothy: Makes sense. So when you were going through your breast cancer treatment after it, who was the one that helped you have that reserve? Parachute, who, who is your support?

Marian: Oh, Barbara above and beyond anyone else.

Dorothy: So you’re single. You didn’t have the family around you?

Marian: No, I didn’t really have anybody. And Barbara is still my best friend.

Dorothy: What can [00:19:00] we do when someone’s going through breast cancer? Was there anything super special she did that? Just let you know you were gonna get through this. Just being there?

Marian: Just being there and having and knowing that I had someone who would be there for me in all ways. She encouraged me to skydive and skydiving got me through the whole thing. I think also because it kept my mind busy and I didn’t dwell on the fact that I had that disease, you know, I I was busy thinking about other things and worrying about when I was going to get to go jump again.

Dorothy: Yes, and so that kept you moving you didn’t— I’m sure you found yourself in some low spots at times But you had this bigger goal you had something—

Marian: Yes, that’s exactly it was having a bigger goal. That’s what it was. Yeah, that’s a [00:20:00] great way to put it.

Dorothy: So, now 12 years afterwards. How do you keep your motivation up? How do you keep your energy up to go and do this every single year?

Marian: Oh gosh, sometimes it’s, uh, it’s hard, but I take a real good break, you know, after the event is over and every October. Um, and then some people will start asking questions about, well, what are we going to do this year, and what are, what’s going to be there, and you know, and it just kind of builds up, and as we get closer to the event, it gets easier. But, I’ve got such a good team behind me now, and they’ve all got their jobs to do, and they know what they’re doing, and I’m not constantly worried about whether or not certain things are getting done and ready for the event.

Dorothy: And it is very complicated.

Marian: It is.

Dorothy: You’re advertising the tandems. You’re talking about the raffles. You are doing all this raffle online [00:21:00] and having to keep up with all that. But I think the most remarkable thing, besides the amazing amount of money you’ve raised, is that it’s all volunteer organization.

Marian: Yes.

Dorothy: Nobody gets paid.

Marian: Nobody gets paid.

Dorothy: So how do you find these volunteers? How do you find these wonderful people?

Marian: They just kind of come to me. I recognize the quality. I think it’s a, I think it’s a, it’s a gift I’ve got. I can recognize a quality in some person, you know, in a person that, um, expresses an interest and my, um, my main board members have been with me since the beginning. And they’re still hanging in there. And we’ve got some new ones.

Dorothy: But you have media people in other states helping you with designs and—

Marian: Oh gosh.

Dorothy: I mean those, that’s incredible.

Marian: Well, there’s a graphics design company in Albuquerque, New Mexico called Options Studios. And the man that owns it is named [00:22:00] Adam Buckner and Adam’s been a big fan of Jump for The Rose since just about the beginning because we would use their company to get our t shirts printed and then uh, now he’s one of his employees, Camille, has become a board member and so I don’t have to deal with all of that, all of that anymore. She’s, she takes care of everything and she’s very dedicated and she loves doing it. And She’s brought in a lot. She’s brought in some new people that I, you know, would not have met otherwise. So things are just kind of building.

Dorothy: Right. The composition. It’s not all skydivers.

Marian: No.

Dorothy: That are your volunteers. It could be anyone, really.

Marian: Yeah, well, anyone. And, yeah, for instance, everyone on my board, uh, none of them skydive now, but they used to.

Dorothy: Yeah.

Marian: Some of them. It’s not just about skydiving. No, it’s not.

Dorothy: I know you’ve said this, but I’ve really seen how much the Jump for [00:23:00] The Rose has changed you, has given you different purposes. I’ve seen you in Washington, D. C. on a stage in front of a thousand people and telling your story and I’m thinking, where does she get this bravery? You know, how do, how do you do all that? Because you have been. I’ve been asked to go so many different places and just talk about the organization.

Marian: Sometimes I have to really reach deep down inside myself and pull out that side of me that can do those things.

Dorothy: And that’s part of the success of the organization. I mean, I’m, I’m looking for if someone wanted to start something like you did, what are the good, what are the bad, what advice would you give them?

Marian: Well, first of all, you need a good education on how to start a nonprofit. And a good lawyer. And, and finding people to help you. That is another big deal. It was scary for me because I didn’t know [00:24:00] anything. And I was really worried that I would make a very grave mistake and mess things up. But, Dorothy, you’ve been a big help to me.

Dorothy: Well, it was our pleasure for sure. This was, this was one of the more, not challenging, but intriguing ideas, you know, it was different. It was, it was something that we could do. And then watching you go international, I just think, oh my gosh, the fact that so many people around the world know about Jump for The Rose and also know about The Rose because of that.

Marian: Right, right.

Dorothy: Marian, with all your different titles, do you identify with being a survivor the most?

Marian: Yes. Yes, I do. And it, and being, having breast cancer and being a survivor, that changed my perspective on everything. I know a lot of women say that. They have breast cancer and it changes, it changed me. Tell you what changed me the most was jumping out of the airplane the [00:25:00] first time. Because I told myself, if I can jump out of a perfectly good airplane, I can do anything.

Dorothy: Wow.

Marian: And. I think that realization is what gave me the strength to start Jump for The Rose.

Dorothy: I don’t want to go too far into this, but you were not a young person when all this started. You were—

Marian: Oh gosh, no. I was 52 years old. The first time I jumped.

Dorothy: Yes. And I mean that’s that’s another really positive message to send to any woman, you know. You you had to learn something so different but also it really required some body strength and and I I know how often you talked about you really had to have keep doing it to keep your body and your muscles and all of those things. It’s a very focused

Marian: Oh yeah.

Dorothy: Yeah.

Marian: Yeah, um, flying your body is, [00:26:00] when we fall out of the sky, we’re not just falling, we’re flying. We’re flying our bodies. We can make ourselves go forwards, backwards, sideways, in relation to someone else next to us. That’s the only way you can tell if you’re going forwards or backwards, but, um, no, it takes, it, it takes— yeah, I had, gosh, I lost probably 20 pounds after I started.

Dorothy: That a plus, yes.

Marian: Yeah. And it’s something that you, if, if it, it’s just like any other sport, if you don’t do it, you, you, you can lose your edge.

Dorothy: Yes. But most of us don’t start a sport at 52 years old . I mean, I think that is, that is such an encouraging message to all women. That you don’t get too old. Keep trying.

Marian: Yeah.

Dorothy: Do something different.

Marian: Yes, there are lots of people who are much, much older that still jump. And that there’s a group [00:27:00] called Jumpers Over Seventy. And they get together— they have come to my event before.

Dorothy: Jumpers over Seventy.

Marian: And there’s some over 80. There’s another one, a group called Jumpers Over Eighty.

Dorothy: So if anyone wants to have this experience, if it’s on your bucket list, you can go to the rows and you can see when Marian has this. It’s always in October. And there’s all kind of things that you can do and, and it’s really, really a fun thing and it’s also raising money that’s going to save lives. So thank you Marian for being with us today and for all of your encouragement, you know People think starting a nonprofit is either overwhelming or it’s very easy. You know, you’ve shown us that it’s somewhere in between

Marian: Yes. Yes.

Dorothy: But it certainly has given you a whole different purpose and meaning in life.

Marian: It certainly did and I’m grateful that I’ve had the chance to do it.

Dorothy: Oh and [00:28:00] we are too and so are hundreds of women that you’ve helped to sponsor for services. Thank you on behalf of them. Thank you very much. And we just appreciate you and thank you for spending the time with us today. So until we meet again, we’ll come back in a little while and talk about your breast.

Marian: Thank you, Dorothy.

Post-Credits: Thank you for joining us today on Let’s Talk About Your Breasts This podcast is produced by Freddy Cruz Creative Works and brought to you by The Rose visit therose.org to learn more about our organization. Subscribe to our podcast share episodes with friends and join the conversation on social media using #LetsTalkAboutYourBreasts. We welcome your feedback and suggestions. Consider supporting The Rose your gift can make the difference to a person in need. And remember, self care is not selfish. It’s [00:29:00] essential.