Mrs Appleby, from Drummond, in Southland, is taking part in Rural Women New Zealand's Triple F Challenge. Triple F stands for fitness, fun and friendship.
The two-yearly event involves 90 women, including support crew, leaving Clyde on April 26 to pedal or walk the rail trail to Middlemarch.
During the challenge, the women will raise funds for cancer survivor programme Bridge to Health.
Special guest will be the programme's facilitator, Dr Sue Walthert, from Dunedin, herself a breast cancer survivor.
Dr Walthert will give a presentation, Riding The Breast Cancer Survival Trail, at a dinner at the Omakau Community Hall on April 26.
For Mrs Appleby, it will be her third time cycling the rail trail, but the first time post-cancer.
She was encouraged to take part in the initiative having seen that Dr Walthert was speaking and she was interested to hear ''another women's journey''.
Mrs Appleby was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008 and later underwent a mastectomy.
She was offered chemotherapy but decided to focus on her diet and exercise and had since been cancer-free, she said.
Her cancer was picked up by a mammogram. A fitness enthusiast and keen tramper, she recently did a 19km coastal walk in the Catlins and she sees a personal trainer every week, which she described as her ''medical insurance''.
She had enjoyed her previous rail trail experiences and when she started mentioning it to friends, they all said they would come too, so she was now part of a 13-strong group.
Although not a member of RWNZ, Mrs Appleby lives on a dairy farm and does the administration work for it.
Her mantra was ''you've just got to enjoy life and get on with it''.
''I can't say, `Poor me, I've had cancer''. I've had cancer. It's in the past. Now, I've just got to enjoy life,'' she said.
The weekend following the Triple F Challenge, Mrs Appleby will be walking the Routeburn Track for the third time with her tramping club and a week later she and her husband, Graeme, will celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary.
It is the fourth time RWNZ members and friends have tackled the rail trail. They decided to hold it again following the success of the 2007, 2009 and 2011 events, planning committee member Pat Macaulay said.
The cycling group will complete the trail over three days, while the walking group will cover about 12km a day.