Soon after hearing the news that her brother Kenny was diagnosed with melanoma several years ago, Dowagiac’s Wilma Chamberlain did what any loved one would do in her shoes — she encouraged him to fight.

More than 10 years earlier, Chamberlain endured her battle with breast cancer, going through the traumatic process of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatment to eradicate the disease from her body.

Even with those painful experiences making an indelible mark in her life, she discovered that, when it came to her brother’s own struggle, she was powerless to help him. Last year, Kenny succumbed to the disease.

“I couldn’t do anything for him, and that hurts,” Chamberlain recalled, tears welling her in eyes. “I was able to fight and win; he did the same, but he didn’t make it.”

This summer, the 68-year-old is looking to join thousands of other women across the country in the quest to discover a future where others won’t share a similar tragic fate.

Throughout the last several weeks, Chamberlain has been raising funds for the Avon Foundation’s AVON 39 event, a charity walkathon for the organization’s efforts to eradicate breast cancer. The event takes place in several cities across the U.S. from late spring through the fall. So far, she has received about half of the $1,800 she needs to participate in the Chicago walkathon, where she intends to walk 39.3 miles over the course of the two day event, which takes place on June 6-7.

“There’s a lot of people out there who have cancer, or know someone who does,” Chamberlain said. “My theory is that if we can find a cure for breast cancer, we can find a cure for other kinds of cancer, too.”

Chamberlain, a native of Niles and a resident of Dowagiac for the past 11 years, said she first heard of the event from her daughter, Waynette Carlile, who signed she and her mother up for the walk earlier this year.

“She called me up one day and asked if I could walk 39 miles,” Chamberlain said. “I was like ‘yeah right.’”

Despite her initial apprehensions, the retiree agreed to her daughter’s suggestion, with the two forming team “Pink and Perky.” In the weeks since, she has been hard at work raising money for the event, collecting $920 thus far, she said.

“It will be a lot of work; it will be a challenge,” she said. “But I think I can do it, as long as I can raise the money to do so.”

To get in shape for the event, Chamberlain has turned to her old friends at the Dowagiac Curves, where she has been a member for the past four years. She’s been visiting the fitness center nearly every morning, training on the treadmill.

More importantly though, is the support that the other members have shown her since she made the decision to walk, she said.

“We’re like a little family out here,” she said.

If she’s able to raise enough to make in time for the day of the walk in June, she said she wants to dedicate her first and last mile to the memory of her brother, she said.

People interested in donating to her team can do so by visiting the AVON 39 website, at http://www.avon39.org.