Climber and entrepreneur Sean Patrick tackled her rare form of ovarian cancer as if she were stranded on a high ledge during a bad storm. She used the fear and anger as "a catalyst to get moving," as she told an interviewer in 2007.

By the time she died Jan. 20 at age 57, Ms. Patrick had turned her illness into into the equivalent of a summit victory. The Carbondale resident created the Hera Foundation to fund ovarian cancer research. Among its fundraisers is Climb4life, a series of climbing marathons held across the country. She also became a mentor to women fighting cancer.

"Like everything she did, Sean was not going to sit back and let cancer take over,' said Lisa Carmichael, a friend of 28 years and the interim director of the Hera Foundation. "But the process of having cancer really set a mission in her life. It really empowered her to change how cancer was affecting other women."

A native of Peekskill, N.Y., Ms. Patrick was known for her array of interests and skills. After graduating from Skidmore College, she moved to Italy, where she became fluent in Italian. Later she started a marketing and design firm, Impact Group.

While in her 30s, after moving to Colorado, she became a rock climber. That's when she met Stephanie Forte, also an aspiring rock climber: "Immediately I thought, 'Gosh, I want to get to know this person,'" Forte, the owner of a public relations firm, recalled.

Friends talk about Ms. Patrick's exuberant style and the parties she threw in the Carbondale home she shared with her partner, Scott Paramski. And they recall how she battled virulent cancer for more than 10 years when, early on, she was given weeks to live.

The day of Ms. Patrick's death, as the news spread, a crowd gathered spontaneously in her honor at a popular outdoor retailing trade show held in Salt Lake City.

"We had a toast to celebrate her life," Forte recalled. "These were the leaders in the outdoor industry, people who had been touched by her life, people who loved her."

Ms. Patrick's robust health first began to flag in 1995, but doctors shrugged it off as "overtraining" and chronic fatigue syndrome. After she was diagnosed in 1997, Ms. Patrick, outraged over what she saw as medical incompetence, created the Hera Foundation.

The foundation funds ovarian cancer research and has teamed with Johns Hopkins University and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Its mission is also to empower women to take control of their health. When rock climber Samantha Lockwood was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2005, Lockwood immediately thought of the woman she knew of, but had never met.

"Oh my God," she recalled. "I need to reach out to Sean Patrick."

A memorial is being planned in Boulder in June. See the Hera Foundation for details, at herafoundation.org.