Kirstie & Caitlin’s Story

Some people have been part of Runway for Recovery since the very beginning. Few embody that history quite like Caitlin MacMillen.

When Runway for Recovery held its very first fashion show in 2007, there was only one person Olivia Boger knew she had to ask to model: her cousin, Caitlin. The answer, of course, was yes.

That night, Caitlin walked in honor of her aunt, Cande MacMillen Achtmeyer, whose life—and whose loss—inspired the creation of Runway for Recovery. Nearly twenty years later, Caitlin returns to the runway for her tenth Runway event, joined this year by her sister, Kirstie, celebrating not only Runway's 20th Anniversary but the woman whose love continues to shape every part of this organization.

Cande was first diagnosed with breast cancer when her children were young. Like so many mothers of her generation, she rarely spoke openly about the disease. Instead, she chose to focus on living.

Years later, Kristin Achtmeyer, Cande's daughter, reflected that breast cancer "wasn't talked about nearly as much," and her mother never sat her children down to explain exactly what was happening. Instead, life continued. Childhood continued. Cande made sure of it.

One milestone became particularly important to her: making it to her twin daughters' eighth-grade graduation. She did.

When the cancer returned years later, it came back quickly. Yet even then, Cande remained focused on her children. She spent the summer making sure camps, vacations, and ordinary family life continued as normally as possible.

Her greatest wish was simple: that her children would be okay.

When Cande passed away in October 2001, she left behind not only four grieving children but an extraordinary community that immediately surrounded them.

More than 1,000 people filled the church for her funeral. Friends drove across Massachusetts simply to sit with the family after school. Teachers stepped in to help with homework, college applications, and everyday life. Family members, neighbors, and lifelong friends quietly filled the gaps that grief created.

Years later, Kristin reflected:

"My mom set up our lives to have this army of people around us when she passed."

That experience became the heartbeat of Runway for Recovery.

While Cande's breast cancer journey inspired the organization's beginning, it was watching families navigate life after the loss of a parent that ultimately shaped its mission. Today, Runway for Recovery exists to ensure families facing metastatic breast cancer and children grieving the loss of a parent receive not only financial support, but the same sense of community that carried the Achtmeyer family through their darkest days.

Walk into the Runway for Recovery offices today and you'll find a pink neon sign that reads KEEP DANCING.

The phrase comes from Lee Ann Womack's I Hope You Dance, one of Cande's favorite songs during the final years of her life. Long before it became Runway's tagline, it became a family promise—that even after unimaginable loss, joy, hope, and childhood were still worth protecting.

For Caitlin, that promise has never faded.

She has now walked ten Runway for Recovery runways in honor of her aunt, watching the organization grow from a small community fundraiser filled with people who personally knew Cande into a national nonprofit serving hundreds of families each year.

This year feels especially meaningful.

Joined by her sister Kirstie, Caitlin returns to celebrate twenty years of Runway for Recovery alongside the family that helped build it from the very beginning. Together, they represent not only the MacMillen family's enduring love for Cande, but the countless families whose stories now live alongside hers.

Because while Runway for Recovery began with one remarkable woman, its mission has always been about something even bigger: making sure no family has to face breast cancer—or the loss that can follow it—alone.

And twenty years later, every step Caitlin takes on the runway is still a love letter to the aunt who taught her family, and now thousands of others, to keep dancing.