Robin Yoder has spent more than thirty years sitting beside Richmond cancer patients as an oncology social worker, and has twice sat in the patient's chair herself. This is her story, told the way she'd tell it: broken, mended, and still building.
Every date below is drawn from Robin's own record and independently confirmed coverage of her life. A few details are still being verified directly with her and are intentionally left general below.
Robin graduates from Colonial Heights High School, on a path toward Division I basketball at East Carolina University. As a senior, she's diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a rare bone cancer, in her right leg. Treatment saves the leg, but ends her basketball ambitions.
Robin serves as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer on a literacy project, between earning her B.S. in Education at ECU and her MSW at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Robin begins working as an outpatient oncology social worker at Johnston-Willis Hospital, the start of a career that continues today. The following year, she begins facilitating cancer support groups still running now.
Robin carries the Olympic torch through Richmond ahead of the Atlanta Games.
With support from The Johns Cancer Foundation and CJW Medical Center, Robin co-founds the Hawthorne Cancer Resource Center at Johnston-Willis alongside Melanie Dempsey.
Robin is diagnosed with a soft tissue sarcoma, unrelated to her first cancer. Roughly three weeks later, her right leg is amputated above the knee. Her son Isaac, then 14, tells her: "Mom, amputate your leg. That is the best chance you have to see me grow up." He later becomes a board-certified prosthetist and orthotist himself. Robin has spoken about how hard it was to accept help, after decades spent being the one who offers it.
Robin sets the Concept2 indoor rowing world record in the women's adaptive above-knee single-leg category.
The U.S. Department of State selects Robin for a 20-person delegation of adaptive-sport advocates sent to Turkmenistan. She leads a running exhibition before roughly 1,000 students in Ashgabat, opening with, "Do you want me to put on my leg?" She's recognized in Turkmen media as a "Woman of Inspiration."
Robin receives HCA Healthcare's national Frist Humanitarian Award. In May, she sets a second Concept2 world record, this time at 5,000 meters.
Robin uses the cash award attached to her Frist Humanitarian Award to establish the Transportation & Discretionary Fund at The Hawthorne, covering gas, rideshares, and basic needs for patients slipping through every other gap.
Colonial Heights High School inducts Robin into its Hall of Fame as a Distinguished Female Alumna.
Robin never set out to leave a legacy. She just kept showing up. Over three decades, the things she started have become places, programs, and people that keep lifting others, and they are still growing.
The cancer support groups Robin began facilitating at Johnston-Willis are still running, still giving patients a room where someone understands.
The Hawthorne Cancer Resource Center she co-founded with Melanie Dempsey gives Richmond families a place to land after a diagnosis.
Robin turned her Frist Humanitarian Award into the Transportation & Discretionary Fund, so gas, rides, and basic needs never stand between a patient and care.
Through Mission Gait and Sportable, Robin walks other amputees through surgery and back into movement, proof that what's broken can be pieced back together.
They belong to everyone who laced up, walked beside her, and gave. She just kept asking people to come along.
These are conservative estimates drawn from public records and news coverage. The real reach of Robin's work, in lives touched and dollars given, is far larger than any number here, and it keeps growing.
The Hawthorne Fall Challenge Walk with Team Robin Every fall, our community walks, rolls, and runs together for patients at The Hawthorne. Team Robin is all of us, side by side, walking to raise awareness and lift up the families in the middle of the fight. Join in person or from wherever you are, and wear the shirt proudly. Join Team Robin 1Sign up on the Fall Challenge page2Choose Team Robin3Walk, roll, or run, and tell someone whyWatch her grow up, told through the photographs of the people who were there. Tap any photo to step inside.
Where it began. Colonial Heights roots, a family that showed up, and a girl headed for the basketball court.
From carrying the Olympic torch to two rowing world records, she never stopped moving.
A MotherMeet IsaacAt 14, Isaac told her to choose the surgery so she could watch him grow up. She did.
Meet IsaacTwo cancers, one leg, and a long line of people who helped her get back up.
Now she walks beside others: patients, amputees, and families who need someone in their corner.
Isaac Yoder Board-Certified Prosthetist and Orthotist
Today, Isaac designs, builds, and fits the artificial limbs and braces that get people back on their feet, back to work, and back to the things they love. It is skilled, hands-on work, and he brings to it the patience of someone who has seen it from the other side.
He was just 14 when his mom's cancer came back. He is the one who told her, "Mom, amputate your leg. That is the best chance you have to see me grow up." He sat with her through surgery and rehab, cheered at her first 10K in 2011, and then went after his own goals, from Friday nights as number 63 for the Lancers to graduate study in prosthetics and orthotics at the University of Pittsburgh and years of clinical training.
Watching her care team put her back together set his course. Now he gives other families what he once watched his mom receive: a way forward.
He is still her biggest supporter, and she is still his.
Robin's advocacy reaches past Johnston-Willis, into the wider community of amputees, athletes, and patients still figuring out what's next.
Robin serves as Director of Patient Reintegration on the Mission Gait board, a driving force behind the "Discover Your Possible" clinic for lower-extremity amputees.
An athlete and mentor with Richmond's adaptive sports organization, Robin has walked other amputees through surgery and back into competitive sport, including mentoring fellow amputee Sue Henneberry ahead of her 2022 surgery.
Robin chaired Chesterfield County's American Cancer Society Relay for Life for eight years, and hosts CJW's Annual Cancer Survivorship Day each year.
Beyond her cancer support groups, Robin launched a support group specifically for the Richmond amputee community, drawing on her own recovery.
Robin is an athlete and mentor with Sportable, Richmond's adaptive sports organization. Watch their video, “I Am An Athlete.”
Watch on YouTube →For more than three decades Robin has shared her story with patients, students, athletes, and community groups. She speaks with warmth and honesty about what it takes to keep moving forward, and what it means to let others help.
Tell us about your event and The Hawthorne Cancer Foundation will follow up with you.
In the winter of 2022, Robin used the cash award attached to her own Frist Humanitarian Award to start the Transportation & Discretionary Fund, covering the gaps that fall through the cracks of every other kind of assistance: a tank of gas to get to chemo, a rideshare to a scan, a grocery run during a week no one has the strength to cook.
Robin's story has been covered directly by outlets outside The Hawthorne, useful if you want to read more in someone else's words. Images and logos belong to each outlet and link to the original story.
WTVR / CBS 6 · Video
Mission Gait
sportanddev.org
Colonial Heights HSRobin would rather talk about the people she serves. So here is what a few of them, and the people she works beside, have shared publicly.
“Robin is always my safe spot. You can call her and you can text her.”
“She is someone who has made such a difference in both the oncology and amputee communities.”
“Robin's focus is on other people, and that really embodies what the Frist Humanitarian Award is truly about.”
“An advocate, champion, mentor, friend, triathlete, two-time cancer survivor and an amputee who has impacted countless lives in Central Virginia and around the world.”
“An amputee herself, a mentor, and an all-around awesome person.”
Any gift, once or every month, in any amount you choose, keeps the fund Robin built with her own award money going for the next family that needs a ride, a tank of gas, or a chair built for healing. You become part of what she is building: local, specific, and there.
The Fall Challenge runs through December 31. Register, track your miles in the challenge app, and pledge how far you'll walk, roll, or run by the end of the year. Every mile helps patients at The Hawthorne.
Free support groups meet at the Hawthorne Cancer Center, 1401 Johnston Willis Drive, Richmond. No registration needed.
Times can change around holidays. Questions? Email info@thehawthorne.org
See the full scheduleTell us how. Share a memory, a photo, or a video. Your story keeps this community connected.
