LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Churchill Downs welcomed 149 breast cancer survivors for its annual survivors parade on Oaks Day.

This is the 15th year they have celebrated these brave women by letting them walk along the historic track. For just five minutes, the horse racing world and the fans gathered at Churchill Downs focused on these 149 women who have had an incredible journey getting to this point.

Clara Johnson is one of those survivors in the parade this year. To say she was on cloud nine would be an understatement. “I wouldn’t mind doing it every day,” she said.

Johnson has spent her entire life in Louisville, but this is the first time she’s ever been to Churchill Downs for Derby Week. On Oak’s Day, she gets to be one of the stars.

“I’ve never actually been inside the field, so it’s pretty cool,” Johnson shared.

A couple of years ago, Johnson was a single mom who started feeling some unusual pain in her breast. She shared with a coworker what she was feeling and that was the first time she thought something serious might be going on.

“She was like, ‘My kid’s grandmother had the same thing and it was breast cancer,’” Johnson said.

Within a few days, she went to get tested, and that’s when she found out. “When he told me cancer, the first thing I thought was, ‘Oh my God, I can’t leave my kids,’” she said.

Being a single mother, she wasted no time getting a double mastectomy as soon as possible. She’s been fighting ever since.

“I’m still going through it, still going with it. I see oncology now every six months. I have neuropathy in both hands and feet, so I’m still struggling with it,” Johnson explained.

But that struggle is not defining her, which is why she said she’s in a weird place as she walks on the grass at Churchill Downs. She’d always seen the survivors parade, but never thought she’d be one of the survivors.

“You have to embrace your new normal is how I see it. I mean, your body’s not the way you wanted it, but it’s how it’s going to be. Embrace your new normal,” she said.

“Knowing the journey they’ve been through and the heartache that they’ve been through, it’s such a supportive moment where everyone comes together as one,” said Heather Singleton with the Noron Healthcare Foundation. The foundation partners with Churchill Downs for the parade.

Singleton said it’s stories like Johnson’s that inspire more than just the people in the grandstands. “It would be really hard to find someone that doesn’t feel that tug at the heartstrings,” she said.

Johnson said it’s her kids and the passing of her father about six years ago that gives her even more of an incentive to keep fighting and never give up.

Churchill Downs randomly selects each of the 149 cancer survivors to take part in the parade each year.