Release Date:  12/31/2021

Episode Number: 017

Episode Title: Turning a Negative into a Positive

Episode Guests:



Sharon Madison

Early on, Sharon figured out that her mind was a powerful engine if she fed it with the right words and actions. Her approach paid off! In her early adult years, she started in retail, finding herself being promoted as one of the youngest store managers at the Ralph Lauren shop in Cherry Creek. When she took up bike racing and put in the hard work it took, she became a top competitor. Because of her actions and thoughts that “she’s got this,” she found herself the winner of 2 gold medals at the Maccabi Games in Israel in 2013 and the Colorado Road Race State champion in 2014. The contagion of her positive energy caught the eye of a nonprofit wanting someone to build up the cycling club arm of their organization. Sharon took on the challenge and created a thriving community of cyclists who followed Sharon’s lead in supporting each other with their goals. 

Not only does Sharon harness her thoughts and actions to make “it happen,” but she also knows how to “turn lemons into lemonade” when everyday life throws her curveballs. The pandemic caused the nonprofit to shut down her 6-year efforts of building up the cycling arm, where she put her whole heart and soul into its development.

You know how it goes—- things were sailing along, and boom, some more lemons fell from the sky. Sharon was diagnosed with breast cancer on July 26, 2021 and had a double mastectomy on September 2. Then, she was served up radiation treatment for 5-days a week for 5 weeks. Thinking about anything but survival would have been our path for many of us. Not Sharon! Since she couldn’t ride her bike, she started walking every day and inviting friends to join her. Some of her walking partners were short-lived because they couldn’t keep up with her pace or her mileage. How many people do you know who thought it might be “fun” to do the Manitou Springs Incline with 2,768 steps and 2000 ft. elevation gain while undergoing radiation treatment? What came from having her cycling taken away (lemons) was getting the WR4 community plus spouses involved in walking, and that was the seed that made a WR4 walking club come to fruition. (Tasty lemonade for sure.) Sharon is a winner on so many fronts. Her strong belief in the importance of mindset never lets her down, no matter how many lemons have been thrown her way. Her message to others having to face the trauma of a cancer diagnosis is to remember—- NEVER GIVE UP! 

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