ROCKPORT — In 2003, during her regular evening shift, Vicki Harriman collapsed. Through the previous years of working as a pediatric nurse at Maine General in Augusta, as the co-founder of Come Spring Farm in Union, and as a scout leader who once hiked 100 miles with her troop, Harriman was unprepared for the diagnosis she received.

The evening of the collapse, a co-worker drove her home. In subsequent days, when she didn’t feel completely back to her self, she visited her doctor.

Following five days in the hospital involving several tests and x-rays, Harriman’s general practitioner informed her of her reality. An unknown tumor in her gut had spread into her lung and wrapped around her aorta. The official label: Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, stage 4.

“I didn’t feel real bad,” Harriman said of the days leading up to her collapsed lung. “Though, I’m a great one for overlooking stuff. I should have realized something was wrong since I was starting to look pregnant at the age of 55. But I was a little nauseated, and I think that’s why I went to the doctor,” she said as she sat at a table in the lobby of the Pen Bay YMCA in Rockport.

Nine months of chemotherapy ensued. Thirteen years total of ups and downs included a hysterectomy, heart disease, and osteoarthritis.

On this day, Harriman’s voice is very quiet, almost pained.

“This is a part of my life that I don’t much like to revisit,” said the woman known as the fastest LiveStrong cancer program participant to reach the top of the climbing wall at the Y.

Harriman acknowledged feeling honored to be interviewed by the media, though wasn’t completely sure why her story was worthy of attention. And yet, she does know why. We agreed that simply living her life after the trials she’s been through is worthy of role model status — not that she needs the attention. She is active with the Common Journey Women’s Cancer Support Group and the Lymphoma Foundation, and has helped edit the Lance Armstrong Foundation’s LiveStrong Manual for Cancer Survivors.

She is a mentor and coach for others diagnosed with cancer. Two of those people, both Lymphoma diagnoses, learn from her from their internet portals in Georgia and Cape Cod. The others are in the same room with her on a weekly basis through the Y’s cancer nutrition, fitness, and emotional support program.

Each graduation of the 12-week series, of which Harriman is an alumni, ends with smiling and cheering. But as staff member and personal trainer Dan Seefahrt can attest in his two years with the program, the 12 people at completion are not the same as those who started.

From day one, they are put “right into the fire,” according to him. They are asked not only to introduce themselves, but to share their stories as well.

They enter, worn down with hopelessness following their diagnosis, he said. They carry a lack of self confidence. Some are new to exercise, sick, and all are coming to the Y with cancer.

In the beginning days, the laughter is missing. Gradually, though, the levity changes. The joking increases, usually sparked by a couple of instigators.

Harriman has been a part of a couple support groups, “but sitting and talking is so much different from being involved in a group that’s physically active and still talk at the same time.”

Life has changed for Harriman and her husband, Herbie, since Lymphoma became a constant companion. Come Spring Farm has downsized from Morgan horses, Bernese mountain dogs and Angus cattle to one Morgan horse, a dog named Isabelle and two cats named Bonnie Jean and Melvin.

Harriman maintains her “flower therapy” by working part time in a neighbor’s nursery. In July, she’ll assume the role of nurse for a camp in Washington for disadvantaged girls. In the fall, she will act as clinical instructor to nursing students at Midcoast School of Technology. Throughout all seasons, she attends meetings of the Knox County Nurses Guild, raising scholarship money for future caregivers.

And, on Saturday, July 16, very early in the morning, she will assist the registration process for athletes of the Hope Tri and LiveStrong 5K. This is the first year Harriman is not participating. The reason? She is co-director of the Come Spring Concert, a Union Founders Day event taking place at noon.

“A person can be stretched in only so many directions,” she said. 

The next LiveStrong 12-week series starts in the fall of 2016. Click here for more information on the program.

Sarah Thompson can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com.