Knight fulfills dream with first annual Hoosiers Outrun Cancer Run/Walk

Karen Knight will go for a run tomorrow. \nShe won't be alone.\nAs her feet pound the pavement, Knight will realize a dream she's had for 10 years -- Saturday's first annual Hoosiers Outrun Cancer Run/Walk.\nFor Knight, wife of former basketball coach Bob Knight, it's the end of a long road -- filled with tragedy, persistence and the burning desire to make a difference.\nKnight was a senior in high school in Oklahoma when her 14-year-old brother Herbie died of a brain tumor. He had been paralyzed for a year and a half before he died. \n"He was three years younger than I was, so he was my buddy," she said. "The one thing he wanted to do was drive a car, but he was never able to." \nHer brother's death has shaped her life in many ways, she said. \n"(His death) had a real profound affect on me -- my passion for life, my passion for what I did in high school, my coaching, my teaching," Knight said.\nHer brother's death was the first time Knight faced cancer, but not the last.\nHer mother, Avanell Vieth, died of breast cancer in 1990.\n"My mother was my family¹s best friend. She had such a quiet inner strength," Knight said.\n"I've always been passionate, but I've realized more the importance of everyday doing the best you can do and trying not to take for granted the things you have."\nIn caring for her mother, Knight learned about cancer patient care.\n"My sister and I were more the primary care-givers with my mother," she said. "We were responsible for more decisions. You're right there through all the treatment and all the hardships."\nKnight also began to see a need for change in caring for cancer patients.\n"After being more involved in my mother's care, and seeing I would like to have things changed -- the way the care was given -- I decided then I wanted to have a race," Knight said.\nShe applied to the Susan G. Komen Foundation for a Race for the Cure in Bloomington.\n"I wanted to do something to honor (my mother) and make things better for patients," she said.\nBut the proposal was not accepted because Indianapolis already has a race, and the foundation said Bloomington is too close to Indianapolis.\nKnight said she put it on the back-burner, but after visiting the Roger Maris Center (for cancer patients) in Fargo, N.D., her interests in the race were rekindled. So she applied to the Komen foundation again, getting the same response.\nEnter Dorothy Ellis, who Knight met in an exercise class.\n"We were out hiking one day," Knight said, "and I mentioned that I wanted to have a run for cancer to honor my mother."\nThey developed the idea at McCormick's Creek. "As we were walking, we planned a walk," Ellis said.\nEllis suggested that the Bloomington Hospital Foundation might be interested in the project. She said the foundation was enthusiastic about participating.\nBut, Knight said the support of her husband is what really got the project going. She said he was both personally and publicly supportive of the race and organized several events with the team.\nAthletics director Clarence Doninger said they are following former coach Bob Knight's wishes.\n"He had made arrangements with the basketball program to do some things," Doninger said. "We're trying to honor those."\nKnight said her husband's support has helped to make her dream come true.\n"My husband, who's always been supportive, and been a strength, gave us the wind beneath the wings, I guess you could say."\nKnight and Ellis are serving as co-chairs of the Hoosiers Outrun Cancer steering committee.\nKnight described how she might feel when she sees the crowd walking for cancer, the cause dear to her heart.\n"I feel a great joy and enthusiasm. It's the same feeling I get when I see a sea of red in Assembly Hall"