Update on Reason #4 that I train with TNT

You may recall a few weeks back that I wrote about Reason #4 (out of 26) that I was training to run a marathon...

Well, Brandon will be starting radiation therapy today.

I am dedicating each and every one of my up-coming panic attacks, near drownings, and celebrations of finally making it to the other side of the pool tonight to him.

If I am being completely honest with you here (and I do try to be), I have been asking myself all week WTF I was thinking in signing up to train for a triathlon with Team In Training. I truly did not comprehend the profound change in lifestyle that this was going to entail. But in my many moments of apprehension and doubt... I keep reminding myself that this is about so much more than me. Am I doing this because I want to challenge myself? Yes. Am I doing it to prove to myself that I can? Yes... Am I afraid that I might fail? Yes!!  But more importantly, I am training for a triathlon with Team In Training because I believe in the mission of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Brandon is a two time survivor. He is starting treatment today for a third time... and he is going to be a three time survivor because progress in treatment options and efficacy is being made. And it is being made possible in no small part because of research grants funded by LLS. Which means funded by you and I and everyone else who makes a donation to LLS.

If you've got a moment... please think of Brandon today, send him some healing energy or positive vibes, say a prayer for him, etc.

And if you've got a few dollars to spare, please make a donation to LLS (by clicking on the link to my fundraising page)... so that we can continue to provide the Brandons of the world more options, better treatment, and continued support in their struggles to survive, get well and thrive in their lives after cancer.

thanks in advance...

26 Reasons to Run - Reasons #23 through 26

It's almost marathon day... tonight after work I'll start packing my bag, Saturday morning I'll hop a plane to New Orleans, and Sunday morning I'll start a 26.2 mile tour of the city on foot, with a few thousand friends... With just three days to go, I'd like to wrap up my Reasons to Run a Marathon (and fund-raise to find a cure for cancer) series.



Miles number 23, 24 and 25 I will run in celebration of the many cancer survivors that I have met since joining Team In Training 6 years ago: LLS staff members, TNT participants, team honoured teammates, personal honoured teammates...


I'll be thinking of Jenny, Zach, Al, Carsten, Shannon, David, Trevor, Todd, Catherine, John, Mike, Tony, Dan, Lisa, Chris... and so many more.

Mile number 26... well I run that mile for me. 

I run Mile #26 in celebration of my continued ability to meet the challenges of training for and running marathons, in spite of  (or perhaps out of spite for ??) my own chronic illness. I run Mile #26 in celebration of the generosity of friends and acquaintances who continue to support the work of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society as long as I continue to ask them to do so. And I run it in the hopes that I will live to see the day where it is no longer necessary to ask...


You can help to make that day happen by donating to LLS now. See the link to my fundraising site in the upper right hand corner.

And... thank you.

26 Reasons to Run - Reason #14

Every season, each Team has special "honoured" teammate... an individual who is in treatment, or has completed treatment for a blood cancer. They help participants who don't have personal connection to the LLS mission to feel that there is a specific someone that they are training for. This is our current team honoured teammate, Kristen...

And this is her story:

My name is Kristen B, I am a 9^th grade biology teacher and cross country coach in Fairfax County. In early December of 2013 I was diagnosed with Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia (APL) after less than a week of showing symptoms, including bruising and fatigue. I started on an oral chemotherapy the day after diagnosis and two more intravenous chemos the day after that. I was in the ICU for the first week because I needed blood transfusions almost 24/7 and was at risk for spontaneous bleeding in my brain. My blood was so out of whack that my doctors didn’t think I would make it through that week. Later they told me the only reason I survived was because of my positive attitude and because I was in great shape before this happened.

 I ended up spending a month in the hospital, including Christmas and New Year’s, and then found out in January that I was in remission. To “consolidate” our results from the first round of chemo we did two more rounds which put me in the hospital for 2 weeks and 4 weeks, respectively. I had plenty of complications along the way but was released from the hospital for the last time in late April. I am now on maintenance chemo to help me stay in remission and I am back to teaching and coaching! I still try to stay positive in the face of challenges and hope to pass that lesson on to my students and runners.

Thank you all for taking on the challenge of simultaneously training, fundraising, and raising awareness to put an end to blood cancers.  I am excited to be your “Honored Teammate” this season, and I wish you all luck on your TNT journey. 

Go Team!

Mile #14, I will be running in support of Kristin.

26 Reasons to Run - Reason #11

I've got 26 reasons (at least!!) to continue training for marathons with Team In Training, and fundraising for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society... Lucas is reason #11.





I met Lucas through Team In Training... he is a childhood leukemia survivor, a regular TNT participant, and an all around awesome guy. We've logged many training miles together, and a few race day miles as well... though he runs much faster than I do. Shine on, you beautiful butterfly!!

Mile # 11, I run for LUCAS

26 Reasons to Run - Reason #10

  Mile #10, I run in honour of my friend CHRIS

This is my friend Chris... he was diagnosed with advanced throat cancer in 2010. Upon completion of his treatment (which involved months of chemo and radiation, followed by surgery, and then a very long and painful recovery), you've never met a man with a greater zest for life. He's living every moment, every day...

Chris is reason #10 that I continue to run marathons with Team in Training, and continue fundraising to help find cures for cancer.

26 Reasons to Run - Reason #9

Here is reason #9 that I continue to run with Team In Training, and continue to raise funds to try to find a cure for cancer.

Mile # 9, I run for my friend KEIRAN

Keiran and I were in the Peace & Conflict Studies program together at university in Nova Scotia, and worked to start a new student society for our department. I went on to work in France for a couple years, and Keiran went to Mexico to work as a human rights advocate. Years later we reconnected when we both moved back to Canada, and were working in a city that was new to both of us... 

Keiran was diagnosed with leukemia in 2012... She is doing well now, and I've been trying to get her to come down from Canada for a visit, and to cheer the Team on at an event (or training). I'll get her down here one of these days!!

26 Reasons to Run - Reason #8

Mile #8, I run for my UNCLE CHRIS

My great-uncle Chris (aka GUC) was a bright spark... GUC made a huge impression on me as a child because he was the first person that I knew who had tattoos, which were both shocking and fascinating to my young self. A true Englishman to the end, he loved a good cup of tea and a good pint of beer... But above all else, GUC loved a joke. Always ready with a raucous laugh...  He died of prostate cancer in 2013.

GUC is reason #8 that I continue to run with Team in Training, and to raise funds to help find a cure for cancer...

26 Reasons to Run - Reasons #6 and #7

Here are reasons #6 and #7 that I run, and that I am fundraising to help find a cure for cancer.

I run in support of CHRISTINE and ANDREA

This is my great-aunt Christine, my great-uncle Malcolm, and their daughter (my mom's cousin, so... my second cousin??) Andrea.

Andrea was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013.

Auntie Christine was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma a few months later.

This photo was taken in September of 2014, at Auntie Christine and Uncle Malcolm's 60th wedding anniversary. As you can see, they're all hanging in there... (And Andrea's hair is growing back!!)

I run (and I fundraise for LLS) in their honour.

26 Reasons to Run - Reasons #4 and #5

This is my cousin Alicia, and her sweetheart Brandon...

Brandon is a two-time Hodgkins lymphoma survivor. He was first diagnosed at the age of 16, and then again in his mid 20's. Just before Christmas Brandon had a biopsy done to determine whether his cancer has come back... and they won't receive the results until the end of next week.





This is my cousin Alicia with her two sister and her Buby (grandmother) Edith.

Edith had non-Hodgkins lymphoma, and after several rounds of chemotherapy, she succumbed to an infection in September of 2013.






Today was our longest team run before race day. The full marathoners ran 20 miles, and it was not glorious. It was just barely above freezing, and drizzling off and on for the first 15 miles. For the last 5 miles it poured. It was pretty miserable, and I won't lie... when we passed our last water-stop, with just three miles left to go... I was pretty tempted to pack it in and get a ride back to my car.

But I thought about Brandon, waiting for weeks to find out if his cancer has returned for a third time, and knowing what a grueling ordeal another round of treatment would mean. I thought about Alicia, who lost her Buby to this disease, and how frightened and concerned she must be feeling right now while they wait for Brandon's biopsy results....

And it made me feel determined. Determined to finish my run, for starters... But also determined to continue helping the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society raise funds for research, to find treatments that will save lives.

I run in support of BRANDON, and in memory of EDITH.

26 Reasons to Run - Reason #3

A marathon is 26.2 miles.... that's a lot of miles, and since I'm not a fast runner, that's a lot of time to be out there running. When one is logging long miles (and long hours), there is plenty of time for sight-seeing, plenty of time for making new friends or enjoying the company of old friends... and plenty of time to get lost in ones thoughts.

When the miles start to take their toll, and I start contemplating all the reasons that I don't actually need to finish this darned run anyway... I bring my thoughts to the reasons that I find myself out on the course, and raising money to help find a cure for cancer.

Here is reason #3 that I run, and that I am trying to help find a cure for cancer.

I run in memory of WAYNE

I met my friend Faith back in the 90s sometime. You know how it goes with some friends... once they have become an intrinsic part of your life, it feels like you can't remember a time when you didn't know them. She is such a friend. Although we live in different countries, thousands of kilometres apart, we try our best to make sure we see each other at least once a year...

The last time I saw Faith was in May... my husband and I went to her house for dinner and a rousing game of "go fish" with her and her family. Wayne was living with her by that time. He had been diagnosed with colon cancer in March, and had undergone surgery to remove it, but the cancer metastasized and by the time we saw him in May he had decided that he was going to focus on quality of life rather than quantity. He moved to Nova Scotia so he could see his daughters and grandchildren daily. 

Wayne's journey through life ended in mid-December.

These are his daughter Faith's words...

My Dad passed away peacefully yesterday just before 3pm on a glorious 12 degree sunny December day.He loved greatly and he will be missed greatly. A testament to a lifetime spent giving love and kindness to others.

Yes, he once gave a homeless man the actual shirt off of his back. True Story 

Dad felt that Christ's love was best demonstrated through helping others, a belief he acted on at every opportunity. To honour his memory in this Christmas season I would ask that in lieu of flowers, please give as your heart dictates. Give that money to your favourite charity, family, adult or child that you feel to be most in need.

A local service will follow in the coming weeks, and an audio link will be posted of the service for those not local and able to attend. We would request for those friends not living in Halifax to take comfort in spending time at home with family over Christmas, as Dad would want.

He was very much looking forward to what he called his "graduation day" and would remind you all that that he though he is absent from the body, he is now present with the Lord.

This was the code that he lived by:

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”         
“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you’”        “
The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”

Matthew 25:35-40

During mile #3, I'll be thinking of Wayne, and his infectious smile and joie de vivre... I'll be thinking of how he'd come to visit me while I was working at his daughter's fruit stand, and give away the produce to those that he felt needed it, carefully polishing each piece until it was free of dust and dirt, as near to perfect as it could possibly get... before passing it to the most outwardly flawed and unkempt members of our community.

Thank you for the lessons, Wayne. And thank you for your love.

To honour Wayne's memory, I ask that you too give as your heart dictates. If helping to find an end to blood cancers is in your heart, please use the link to my fundraising page in the upper right corner and make your life saving donation to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. If your heart guides you to another cause, then go there and give what you are able... be it your time, your money and/or your presence. 

26 reasons to run - reason #2

First things first... thanks so much to those of you who have helped me to get past the mid-way point in my fundraising for my 8th event with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society... I am enormously grateful!!

As I write, I currently have another $1200 to go... and essentially 3 weeks to get there! and, I can do it. I have good reasons to keep at it.

Here is reason #2 that I run, and that I am trying to help find a cure for cancer.

Mile #2, I run for my friend Bonnie

A few decades ago now, I was living with my friend Kris and her son attending university. My family had moved clear across the country for my dad to go to law school, and air travel in Canada is prohibitively expensive (particularly on a student's budget)... So Kris' mom Bonnie generously invited me to come north to spend the Christmas holidays with them. Their family is large and noisy like mine, and I was made so welcome that I forgot to feel homesick for my family at Christmas that year.

Bonnie was diagnosed with lymphoma just months after her husband had died suddenly of a heart attack. She made her way through treatment with several young children at home, as well as kids in university... Bonnie has been cancer-free for more than 20 years.

So on mile #2 of my 20 mile training run on Saturday (and on race day), I will think of Bonnie and her family, and the challenges they overcame during her illness... puts the challenges of training for and running a marathon into perspective, if you know what I mean.

26 reasons to run... reason #1

A marathon is 26.2 miles.... that's a lot of miles, and since I'm not a fast runner, that's a lot of time to be out there running. When one is logging long miles (and long hours), there is plenty of time for sight-seeing, plenty of time for making new friends or enjoying the company of old friends... and plenty of time to get lost in ones thoughts.

When the miles start to take their toll, and I start contemplating all the reasons that I don't actually need to finish this darned run anyway... I bring my thoughts to the reasons that I find myself out on the course, and raising money to help find a cure for cancer.

I meant to start this 26 days before race day, but life got busy and I forgot... so I'll do an extra  "catch up" post at some point, but in the meantime... here is reason #1 that I run, and that I am trying to help find a cure for cancer.

I run for MY MOTHER

My mom is one the primary reasons I ever started running... in 2002 she told me that she had always wanted to run a marathon. I didn't think that I could run a marathon, but with a little perseverance and support I thought I could probably manage a half... so we found a 16 week half marathon training schedule in a Runner's World magazine, tore it out and stuck it on the fridge. Then we found a half marathon that was 18 weeks away, so we'd have a couple extra weeks training time in case we had a down week or two... And then we spent the next 18 weeks running 3-4 times a week together. We ran on the local track after work. We ran trails on the weekends. We ran in the pouring rain. We ran through the woods and by the ocean... And on race day, we ran every step of the (half) Marathon de Deux Rives in Quebec City together. The next day I left the country for two years... but that was not a reflection on my mother!!

It was such an amazing thing to experience with my mom. And to this day, she remains my greatest running supporter. She regularly calls me during my long Saturday morning runs. She and my nephews call me a couple hours into a race, to cheer me on... and she came down to Virginia to cheer me on in person during my first full marathon.

Last year my mom was diagnosed with Ocular Melanoma... that is, cancer of the eye. She had four surgeries to remove parts of her eyelids, eye socket and the conjunctiva of her right eyeball...

We were so fortunate that they caught it early, and were able to treat her cancer with surgeries alone. Not everyone is so lucky...

In Mile #1 of my next race (and every race, really)... I think of my mom, and run in her honour.