For most people, a diagnosis of terminal cancer would be enough of a challenge to face. But Harriet Farb, who has incurable breast cancer, is taking on another physical conquest -- climbing one of the world's tallest mountains. Farb flies out of Raleigh-Durham International Airport on Jan. 10, bound for Tanzania and Mt. Kilimanjaro. Her ascent of the 19,340-foot peak will raise more than $10,000, which Farb is donating to the patient and family resource center at UNC-Chapel Hill's Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. Farb, who lives in Raleigh, has been a patient at UNC's cancer center since 2001.

The resource center helps patients cope with the physical, emotional and financial strains of treatment. Assistance may come in the form of a prepaid gas card to defray travel expenses, a class on managing appearance changes or the use of a jaunty hat to cover a head newly bald from chemotherapy.

"Patients are so focused when they first come in on treatment they kind of overlook their other needs," said Pam Baker, the resource center's assistant coordinator. "We kind of give them hope."

Farb, 66, has never needed the resource center's help. But during monthly treks to the cancer center's infusion room for treatments of the drug Herceptin, Farb saw plenty who did.

There were patients who drove hours from Asheville or Fayetteville for treatment, burning hundreds of dollars a week on fuel. There were people too sick and exhausted after chemotherapy to drive home, requiring a night's stay at a motel. Some fretted over affording the $6-a-day parking fee, which quickly adds up during daily chemotherapy regimens.

On top of those challenges, Farb saw many patients suffering with pain and debilitating exhaustion.

Meanwhile Farb, who works as a disease management nurse for a Morrisville company, felt fine. She had a full head of hair, worked full time and still had the energy to exercise every day.

"I felt like I didn't belong there," said Farb, who was initially diagnosed with breast cancer in 1989 while living in south Florida.

Farb's recurrence was discovered in 1998, when tests showed her liver was shot through with tumors. From that time on, Farb's cancer was no longer considered curable. But she has stayed on treatments to keep it from advancing. Farb moved to the Triangle in 1999 and has been under the care of Dr. Claire Dees at UNC-CH since 2001.

"Cancer is not a death sentence," said Farb, whose doctors in Florida once predicted she had less than two years to live. "You learn to live with it."

Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro is one way of telegraphing that message to other cancer patients, Farb said. She took on the climb at the suggestion of her brother, who runs a Gainesville, Fla., foundation called Climb for Cancer. The group organizes mountain climbs to raise money for cancer research and support services.

Farb had just accepted the challenge to climb -- on the condition that all the money she raised go to UNC-CH's cancer center -- when a visit to Lineberger in June brought bad news. Farb's cancer was growing again. That meant the infusions of Herceptin were no longer working and it was time to switch to a new treatment.

Farb was concerned for her health, but her thoughts quickly went to the staff in the cancer center's infusion room, who had tended to her during three-and-a-half years of Herceptin therapy.

"I thought, 'Oh my gosh, what am I going to do without those people?' " she said. "They're like my family."

Farb has never considered cancelling the climb, despite her most recent setback. For one thing, too many people have opened their hearts and purses to support her. Farb has already surpassed her $10,000 goal and checks are still coming in. Farb's brother is paying for her climb, so all the money she has raised goes to the cancer center at UNC-Chapel Hill.

"People have come up to me and said, 'You must feel so good about what you're doing,' " Farb said. "I have done nothing. I put my story out there, and people have taken it and run with it."