Kathy Van Riper

Kathy Van Riper, a competitive runner whose commitment to staying active and strong helped her endure a decade with cancer, died Friday at her Cotati home.

The 40-year-old mother of two had lived with her cancer almost since the birth of her 10-year-old son, Ian, who was an infant when a lump was discovered in her breast.

She was otherwise the picture of health -- trim, athletic, full of energy -- and often used herself as an example to underscore cancer's random aim.

Van Riper endured the spreading tumors, pain and treatments over the years and vowed to live as fully as possible for the sake of her son, her daughter, Jillian, 13, and her husband, Marc.

They created an extended, supportive network that drew in hundreds of people who heard Van Riper's story, saw her speak or read a blog she kept for the past three years detailing her life as a mom and the ups and downs of her disease.

She gained national recognition as a "warrior" against breast cancer on TV's "The View" in 2006. She was an advocate for cancer patients, overcoming her distaste for public speaking to advance her cause. With her husband, she founded a nonprofit camp to help address the needs of children whose families are dealing with cancer.

"We don't know what we're going to do without her," her brother-in-law, Kirk Copeland of Cotati, said Saturday. "She made our lives better."

Born Kathy Dalton in San Francisco, Van Riper was 2 when her parents moved to Sonoma, where she and her sister and brother were raised.

Van Riper started running as a freshman at Sonoma Valley High School and soon proved herself to be a formidable long-distance competitor. She still holds the school's 2-mile record.

She attended Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff on an athletic scholarship, earning a bachelor's degree in education in 1991. She returned to Sonoma to work at St. Francis Solano School, where she taught math, science and physical education.

In 1993, she attended EMT training in Santa Rosa and met instructor Marc Van Riper. They were married a year later.

After her daughter was born in 1997, she became a stay-at-home mom, though she continued coaching track at times and working as a substitute P.E. teacher.

Even after her diagnosis, she kept running -- or at least walking -- whenever possible, and even raced in the early years, sometimes between chemotherapy treatments.

A woman of deep faith, she laid claim to running as a metaphor for her struggle with cancer, seizing on a Biblical verse from the Book of Hebrews, which says in part, "Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."

Her bid to stay alive became "Kathy's Race," the self-published memoir she wrote for her children.

The dream she and her sister had as children -- to live on the same street and raise their children together -- came true.

On her treatment days, her husband often ran from their Cotati home to his job at Kaiser Permanente in Santa Rosa in solidarity with her own race against disease.

Van Riper's last blog entry, Jan. 12, closed with these words: "Alright, it's time to go. Through all of this, though, I know things will be OK, we are in God's hands, my children, my husband . . . all of us. I keep telling my kids . . . 'You will be OK.' How else could you get through this? Thank you Lord for being there."

In addition to her husband and children, Van Riper is survived by her mother, Ann Marozik of Sonoma; father, Bernard Dalton of Sonoma; sister, Jennifer Copeland of Cotati; and brother, Danny Dalton of Winterhaven, Fla.

A memorial service will be held at 11:30 a.m. Feb. 20 at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts, followed by an informal reception.