JEANNA DUERSCHERL The Roanoke Times

Gail Bailey (right), a nurse at Salem Surgical, gets a hug from patient Theresa Bell. Bailey recently found out she has breast cancer.

ERIC BRADY The Roanoke Times

Dr. Carole Wray (left) and Audra Doyle work at the Blue Ridge Surgery Center in Salem where they have also been busy raising money for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.

Gail Bailey gives her heart to her patients. The medical assistant buys stacks of pink rubber bracelets and collects bags of homemade heart-shaped pillows, then gives the items to women battling breast cancer who come to Salem Surgical Associates.

Bailey, 54, has spent almost 20 years working with breast cancer patients, often with Dr. Robert Williams, a surgeon and board president of Roanoke Valley's Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

Bailey wanted to walk at the group's inaugural Race for the Cure this week to honor one of her patients.

Then last month she learned that she has breast cancer. Bailey's co-workers now will walk in her honor.

"I'm going to walk if it kills me," she said.

For Roanoke's breast care doctors and nurses, the race Saturday in Roanoke County will be a way to support breast cancer's victims: the people who visit their offices, their family members and, in some cases, each other.

"It's overwhelmingly empowering. It lets them know that the people taking care of them really do care about them and care about the cause," said Catherine Hagan-Aylor, a clinician at Carilion Breast Care Center and past vice president of the Roanoke Komen group. The race committee expects more than 1,500 people to participate in the 5K competitive run or walk or 1-mile "fun run."

The race is also a way to raise money to help women in the Roanoke Valley. Of the $174,000 raised for the race as of March 31, 75 percent will go to area programs educating women about breast cancer and prevention and giving free screening and treatments.

One team from Blue Ridge Surgery Center has raised more than $5,000. Twenty-five center staff members and their families will run the race for Dr. Carol Wray, a plastic surgeon who performs breast reconstructions at Blue Ridge.

Wray was diagnosed with breast cancer in September 2004. She had a double mastectomy, chemotherapy, radiation therapy and breast reconstruction, and took only a few weeks off work.

"We just have so much respect for her. We watched her go through that and we want to show our support," said Audra Doyle, one of the Blue Ridge nurses who founded the team. "We call her 'Superwoman.' "

When the team, named "Wray of Hope," asked if they could run the race in her honor, Wray cried, she said.

Angel Walker, another Blue Ridge nurse, has approached nearly every doctor she knows to ask for race donations in Wray's honor.

She says no one's said "no" yet -- and it shows. One of the yellow walls in the surgery center's break room is covered with about 50 pieces of construction paper cut in circles that look like breasts. They represent donations of $100 or more.

Wray has two cut-out breasts bearing her name.

"You don't think physicians can get sick," said Tracy White, another Blue Ridge nurse on the team. "For women, it could be any of us."

Gail Bailey got a mammogram every year since she turned 40, and she knew to do self-examinations for lumps once a month.

Her work had taught her what to look for on the X-ray photos: A cluster of dots, each no bigger than a grain of salt, that you can cover with a pencil eraser.

On March 9, Bailey saw those spots on her mammogram. The doctor said she should follow up in six months, but she asked for a biopsy to be safe.

A radiologist called her at work March 12. Bailey has ductile carcinoma in situ, an early form of cancer, in her right breast. More tests revealed two cancerous spots in her left breast, including one that's invasive.

Doctors will learn Bailey's prognosis when they remove both her breasts on April 21. Then she will know if the cancer has spread to her lymph nodes, if she needs chemotherapy and radiation treatment, if she can have immediate reconstructive surgery.

"I'm there when we remove the bandages after surgery, and sometimes they cry," Bailey said of Williams' patients. "It makes it harder on me -- I'm going to have to go through what they're going through."

Months ago, Williams spoke to the eight women who work at Salem Surgical.

He told them the statistic: that one in eight American women will be diagnosed with breast cancer some time in her life.

The women looked around, knowing it could be one of them.

"We just all didn't realize that it would be so soon," said Courtney Johnston, Salem Surgical practice manager.