Friends remembering Nancy Olds-Bohm with a memorial 5K

A group of former schoolmates from Wyanet High School are banding together to help in the fight against breast cancer; they are doing so in memory of a friend who succumbed to her battle with the disease.

Nancy Jo Olds-Bohm died two years ago at the age of 39, after an18-month struggle with breast cancer. As a way of honoring her memory and her struggle with the disease, a group of her former school mates at Wyanet High School are organizing a memorial 5K

walk-run event bearing her name at the Wyanet Summer Festival.

“This is something we’re doing in her memory as a way to deal with our grief, and we’ve had a good time with it. It’s brought us much closer together, and we still have our bond,” said Lori Graham, who along with fellow Wyanet alumni Karen Russell, Margaret DeVenney and Julie Farraher is organizing the event.

“She was always kind of the one that kept us together, so this is something that continues that,” Graham said.

Proceeds from the event will go to the Wyanet Community Club, which organizes the yearly summer festival, as well as the Home of Hope, a cancer wellness center based out of Dixon that helped out Nancy during her battle with breast cancer.

Olson, whose mother, Dorothy, died of breast cancer as well, said seeing the difference the Home of Hope made in Nancy’s battle with the disease helped inspire her to raise funds for the organization.

“Nancy went to the Home of Hope up there and just had so many positive things to say, something my mom never had.” Graham said.

“They’re pretty much the only cancer wellness center outside of Chicago in North Central Illinois. It’s a place where cancer patients and their families can go to do some research, and to meet with other people who are going through the same thing,” Graham said.

The group got the idea for the event, which will be held on July 11 as part of the Wyanet Summer Festival at Wyanet’s Memorial Park, from Nancy’s dedication to the festival.

“Nancy was always very highly involved in the Wyanet Summer Festival, and somebody else used to put on this event and let it go years and years ago. She liked to walk, so we wanted something that we could do during the festival that would attract people,” Graham said.