I'd really planning on running the Nike Women's Half Marathon in San Francisco for Team in Training, although I likely would have switched that to Dublin, Ireland after I saw last week that Team Virginia is doing that race. However, after a lot of thought, I realized that I want to do the Komen Three Day instead this year.
My sister Ann has been desperately ill with stage 4 breast cancer. She had a horrible sounding surgery yesterday in an attempt to temporarily relieve some of her problems caused by metastasized breast cancer tumors that have spread throughout her lungs. I think about her every day, and feel helpless. I can't ease her misery. I can't cure her. I can't save her life. But I can walk 60 miles (well, OK, I can't today but I will by September). I can raise money for the purpose of breast cancer research and patient support. I can make a personal statement to do some small thing to make a difference in the lives of future women (and a few men) who get breast cancer. So that is what I will do.
On September 23-25, just three days before my sister's next birthday, in the Washington DC area, I will lace on my running shoes and walk 60 miles with thousands of others, all of us with the same goal: to stamp out breast cancer by making it curable not some of the time, but all of the time. Do you want to help? You don't have to walk sixty miles or even a mile. Just make a donation, of any amount, by going to my Komen 3-Day website.
I have a four year old granddaughter. I was there at her birth, and I love her to pieces, even though she lives far away and I am lucky to see her twice a year. Someday, my little granddaughter will become a woman, and when she does, I don't want her to worry about breast cancer. I want that to be an evil thing of the past. And I want her to know, that in his own small way, her Papa Art had a tiny part in helping to make that happen.
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