Elizabeth Edwards Gratified By Sympathy
Elizabeth Edwards said Monday that since announcing a recurrence of her cancer she's been buoyed by a national outpouring of sympathy, including 12,000 e-mails.
Now she understands how seven-time Tour de France winner and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong felt as he competed before cheering crowd bicycle races, Edwards said at her first solo public appearance since she and her husband, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, announced last week he would stay in the presidential race despite the incurable cancer that has spread to her rib.
"You can't stop when people are cheering for you all along the way," she said in a speech at the City Club of Cleveland. "It makes the private journey we are going through now easier."
And she hasn't stopped — or even slowed down. Since the announcement last Thursday, Edwards has criss-crossed the country campaigning, CBS News correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi reports. In five days, she's hit four cities and logged more than 6,000 miles.
According to a USA Today/Gallop Poll, Americans by a 2-1 margin support John Edwards' decision to stay in the race. However, 38 percent believe he will eventually have to withdraw because of his wife's illness.
As Elizabeth Edwards entered the room, the crowd about 270 people unanimously rose and applauded. Smiling, she shook hands with everyone at her table before lunch. She received a second ovation as she approached the podium to speak.
"If you can just keep standing and applauding for another 25 minutes, I can go straight to the question and answer," she said drawing laughter from the crowd.
She was invited to the well-known Cleveland issues forum about three months ago to take part in a lecture series of women speakers.
Elizabeth Edwards, 57, was first diagnosed with breast cancer in the final weeks of the 2004 campaign when her husband was the running mate of presidential candidate John Kerry. She underwent several months of radiation and chemotherapy.
Read the transcript of Katie Couric's interview with John and Elizabeth Edwards on 60 Minutes
Watch RAW video of the eventThe couple announced Thursday that she was again facing cancer, only this time it was incurable and had spread to her bone. Despite the diagnosis, the Edwards said they wanted to forge ahead with his second bid for the presidency.
Elizabeth Edwards, who appeared with her husband on 60 Minutes Sunday in an interview with CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric, disclosed that aside from the cancerous spot in her rib bone, a "hot spot" has been detected in her right hip.
She said doctors told her they believe it is too small to pose a new health risk.
"There are a couple of hot spots, on the bone scan, in my right hip, for example," she replied. "And one of the questions is whether or not to do radiation to reduce the size of that — of the cancer in that location — and for fear that it might weaken my bone and that I might break my hip. But their consensus was that it was too small an area for that to be a risk."
She told Couric that she is feeling fine, "except for a cracked rib … I feel terrific," she said.
"You know, you really have two choices here. I mean, either you push forward with the things that you were doing yesterday or you start dying," Edwards said. "That seems to be your only two choices."
She said she wants to live.
"I want to do the work that I want next year to look like last year and … the year after that and the year after that," she told Couric. "And the only way to do that is to say I'm going to keep on with my life."
In Cleveland, one audience member asked whether she would continue to be outspoken if she becomes first lady and whether she would "go beyond decorating Christmas trees and those kinds of things."
"There are almost no issues on which I do not have an opinion, but I do have young children, so I will be decorating Christmas trees as well," she said. One of her causes would be to try to increase funding for research by the National Institutes of Health, she said.
In San Francisco, John Edwards told a gathering of reporters that he missed his wife. He said they both remained committed to his campaign.
"I'm completely confident that I can do this," said John Edwards, who wore a yellow Lance Armstrong "Livestrong" bracelet. "We love our country so much, and we want to serve our country."