Community mourns loss of inspirational Lakebay woman

Terri Hunziker dies after long battle with lung cancer

Paige Richmond

of the Gateway

Terri Radcliffe Hunziker, a Lakebay resident and former Kitsap School District science teacher, died on July 4, nearly five years after being diagnosed with lung cancer. She was 45.

The mother of two had been an inspiration to both the local community and people nationwide when she launched www.mybumpintheroad.com, a Web site where she chronicled her treatments for Stage IV non-small cell adenocarcinoma, also known as non-smoker’s lung cancer.

Hunziker also created www.neversmokers.com, a nationwide database for patients diagnosed with the same cancer.

Those Web sites, her husband Mike said, came naturally to Hunziker — not only because she had already launched two successful online businesses before becoming sick, but also because she was a selfless person who wanted to help others.

“The whole time I’ve known her, she’s never been focused on herself or concerned about herself,” Mike Hunziker said.

That selflessness was something that her cousin, Angie Cabe, also observed in Hunziker’s roles as a teacher, mother and businesswoman.

“It was always everybody first,” Cabe said. “It was more apparent when she was diagnosed. She didn’t talk about her condition — she always wanted to talk about you.”

When Hunziker began focusing on her treatment, she did her best to kept a positive outlook. She never used the word “fight” to describe her nearly five-year battle with terminal lung cancer, because she didn’t think that kind of terminology was healthy for her body.

“I choose to relax, research and learn instead,” she said in April, a month before she was to begin an experimental drug in a University of Washington medical trial.

The drug, called IPI 504, was Hunziker’s third clinical trial in as many years, and it was her last attempt at prolonging her life, as the cancer had metastasized to her brain. She began the trial in May and found out in early June that the drug had failed.

Hunziker returned home under hospice care and died July 4.

More than 200 people attended her memorial service at St. Nicholas Catholic Church last week.

Her sister, Traci Lovey, spoke to the group of friends, family and community members and described her sister as “amazing, incredible, courageous.”

Stephanie Lyle, a friend of the family, described Hunziker as an inspiration and a “miracle.”

The community support, both during Hunziker’s illness and after her death, has been overwhelming, Mike Hunziker said.

Community members donated more than $25,000 at a late-April fundraiser planned by Cabe. Neighbors and friends would often care for the Hunzikers’ two sons, Brae, 11, and Bryson, 5, while their parents attended doctor’s appointments.

The Peninsula School District allowed Mike Hunziker, an art teacher at Key Peninsula Middle School, to have a flexible schedule so he could care for his wife.

Mike Hunziker has even received e-mails from “all over the world” from his wife’s former students, who remember her as the best teacher they’ve ever had.

“She touched a lot of people,” he said.

To honor Hunziker’s memory

Throughout her treatment, Terri Hunziker felt that more money and funding should be devoted to lung cancer, since the disease is the most common cancer in men and second most common cancer in women.

Hunziker’s husband, Mike, suggested that those who are interested in honoring Terri’s memory could donate to any foundation that provides lung cancer research.

Here are few possibilities:

www.lungcancerresearchfoundation.org

www.nationallungcancerpartnership.org

Reach Reporter and Columnist Paige Richmond at 253-853-9243 or by e-mail at paige.richmond@gateline.com.