Susan G. Komen for the Cure

In June 2004, I did my first fund-raising for the National Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Washington DC. I raised about $550 for this race. I left home about 4:30AM to drive to Washington in a driving rain storm, and caught the Metro about 6:30. I felt proud that I was the only man in the train that I was in to offer up my seat to a lady, but I felt ashamed of all of the other men who didn’t do so. What would their mothers say? Most of the other guys were a lot younger than I am, and certainly didn’t seem any less physically capable of standing for a while than I was.

The race was great. As a two year cancer survivor, it was so inspirational to do this and to see the huge crowd doing the race, and especially all the pink-shirted women who had survived breast cancer.

Now with my sister dealing with breast cancer, I felt like I had to do something for this cause in 2008. My first choice was the Komen 3 Day, which is a three day, 60 mile walk. I even knew a lady on a local team, America the Boobiful (http://www.americatheboobiful.com/) that I could have joined and thus had people to train with. But the date of the 3 Day was the same weekend as a planned family reunion and celebration of my sister’s birthday, so that was out.

So what I decided on was the May 10, 2008 Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Richmond. This was a 5K race, and should be a great event. I signed up and created a fund raising page. Among other things, here is what I wrote:

One in seven women will be stricken with breast cancer in her lifetime. Included in that number are three of my family members:

*** My sister, Ann, battling breast cancer every day for the past 14 + months - 4 different chemo treatments, many surgeries, and radiation.

*** My sister-in-law, Christine, survivor of breast and ovarian cancers for nearly 20 years.

*** My step-mother, Rhoda, just diagnosed in March.

These three ladies will be my special personal honorees for this race. But in addition, I am running for the following women that have had to face breast cancer:

*** In memory of Linda Cox

In Honor of:
*** Bev Kuhlman
*** Janice Wedwick
*** Mary Beth Gibson
*** Magdalena Gentile
*** Jen Stewart
*** Linda Silver
*** Jeanne' Thompson
*** Lisa Auerbach
*** Sue Patton

Everyone of these women is personally known to me except Sue, who is the mother of a friend. It is actually kind of scary that I know so many people who have had breast cancer, but kind of uplifting that so many of them have survived it.

I set my goal to $365, as follows:

3 – represents the three family members of mine who have had to battle breast cancer
6 – represents the number of years, as of May, that I am a lymphoma survivor
5 – represents the number of races I have done now to raise money to battle cancer: Komen in 2004 and 2008, and TNT in 2005, 2006, and 2008.

With my participation in the 10K over, I now looked forward to this next event.