The Denver Broncos have legions of passionate fans. One of them has taken her passion to an unusually visible level.

Kara Christian of Denver showed her support of the team with a half-page advertisement on Page 3B in the Saturday Sports section of The Denver Post.

The ad contains an inspiring message of how the Broncos have helped Christian deal with breast cancer and a resulting terminal prognosis.

She addresses the ad — in which she identifies herself only as “The Bronco Lady” — to “my beloved Denver football team.”

“I want to make it clear that I did not do this for publicity,” Christian said after being contacted Saturday by The Post. “I did it because I love the team and I want them to know how much they mean to me.”

Christian, 58, has been a Broncos fan since age 5, when the team played its first game in 1960.

She is close to many Broncos players and coaches. The bond became stronger recently when the team learned of her illness.

The tie was highlighted last Sunday when Christian was given a field pass for the Broncos’ AFC championship game in Denver and a commemorative football signed by each player on the team.

“You shall never know how much your kindness and support has meant to me throughout my illness,” Christian said in the ad.

“An autographed football has made the darkest of days shine brightly with an orange glow. A hug has given me strength to remain Bronco tough. A field pass has given me the encouragement to make it through another day. A phone call has meant the orange and blue world to me.”

Broncos officials were unaware of the ad until they saw it Saturday in the newspaper. They suspected, but weren’t entirely sure, that “The Bronco Lady” and Christian were one and the same.

Team spokesman Patrick Smyth showed the ad to Broncos executive vice president John Elway.

“He just had a big smile on his face,” Smyth said of Elway.

Christian is well known to team personnel and fans as the exuberant South Stands regular with the big orange wig.

She once tried out to become a Broncos cheerleader — at the age of 51.

Christian, a retired college professor of exercise physiology, was on the season-ticket waiting list for 10 years before finally landing one in 1996.

For the next nine years, she was working out of state but came back to attend many games. For games that she couldn’t make — and before the surge in satellite TV packages — she instructed friends to send overnight parcels with VHS tapes of the broadcast. She jokingly told her students that she would punish them with failing grades if they disclosed the outcome of the games.

Since returning to Denver in 2005, she has rarely missed a game and typically arrives at the stadium several hours early to greet players as they walk from the team parking lot to the locker room.

“The best thing they do is give me hugs,” she said. “That means a lot to me.”

Christian said she qualified for two Super Bowl tickets through the team’s season-ticket lottery and plans to attend next Sunday’s game with friends.

“I think my seats are up high enough where I may need a telescope to see the game,” she joked. “But we intend to be vocal. I will be supporting my team.”

Christian’s ad concludes: “I was born a Bronco, I bleed orange and I will proudly die a Bronco. GO BRONCOS.”

Steve Raabe: 303-954-1948, sraabe@denverpost.com or twitter.com/steveraabedp

Text of Kara Christian’s ad

TO MY BELOVED DENVER FOOTBALL TEAM

Dear Teammates: You shall never know how much your kindness and support has meant to me throughout my illness. An autographed football has made the darkest of days shine brightly with an orange glow. A hug has given me the strength to remain Bronco tough. A field pass has given me encouragement to make it through another day. A phone call has meant the orange and blue world to me.

THANK YOU!

As you know, my mantra is “everything, every play.” Do know that I will be giving it “everything, every play” to help us win Lombardi #3; I have your back.

From Frank to Peyton, from Goose to CCCHHHAAAMMMPPP, from Mingo to Prater — I love you all.

I was born a Bronco, I bleed orange and I will proudly die a Bronco.

GO BRONCOS,

The Bronco Lady