Ironman Athlete Patricia Salazar Shares Cervical Cancer Journey (Exclusive) [Video]

Three years ago Patricia Salazar was on top of the world. The then 31-year-old endurance athlete was in the best shape of her life — and just weeks away from competing in her first full Ironman race. Even better, she was in love and in a new relationship with fellow endurance athlete Aaron Toro (who would later become her husband).

“I was in such a good place,” she says. “I was so healthy. I was an Ironman.”

That all changed with one phone conversation on Oct. 7, 2021. She was sitting in the parking lot of her gym in Los Gatos, Calif., when her gynecologist called her on Zoom. Results from a routine biopsy Salazar had done several weeks earlier were back. 

“She asked where I was and if there was someone I could go to,” recalls Salazar, now 34. “She said, ‘You have squamous cell carcinoma on your cervix.’ …