Hope 4 Meg
From Meg's Avon Walk webpage:
Survivor, Fighter, Walker
1 in every 2 men will experience cancer in his lifetime.
1 in 3 women will experience cancer in her lifetime.
560,000 people in the US die from Cancer Every Year
Meaning over 1,500 of our family, friends, or co-workers die every day from cancer which is equivalent to over 3,000 every other day. It's like experiencing 9/11 every other day in terms of victims. Talk about a terrorist.
My 30 second story: I was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 25 (check yourselves). I fought through that and a recurrance. Not 2 years later, I was diagnosed with leukemia from the radiation treatments to fight my breast cancer. I have been fighting that for the majority of the last 8 years with 2 bone marrow transplants & numorous trips to the hospital. I have had days where I really, really didn’t think I could make it through and wanted to give up. My blessings in life, starting with Alex, Brody, Rorick and Steve, my team and all of you pushed me through, and here I am. This last year brought on a couple of tumors in my brain that were benign (YAY!) and they are still deciding if they are related to my cancers. So I have also had 2 brain disections this Jan and Feb. My boys (non-certified in anything) were allowed to remove my stiches…yes it is as scary as that sounds…they had a blast playing doctor. We are all doing very well now. I am up and about now, and not the weeble that I have been the last couple of months. I am not sure I will ever be able to use my drill again after finding out they use the same drill in the OR to drill a hole in my head as I have in my garage.
I decided to focus my fundraising not because I don’t support other forms of cancer, but because I am a firm believer that finding the cure or the preventative to one type of cancer will open up the doors to all other forms of cancer. Nobody can do this alone. I know that I can count on all of you. Over the past 3 years that I have walked, my life has changed forever. You have helped raise over $15,000. Steve, Alex and I are asking for your help to raise at least half that much this year. We have also been blessed to have found an incredible team to walk with, learn from and join forces with these past three years. We have team members in all nine walk cities. This year, our team fundraising goal is to raise 1 million dollars! We were very, very close last year.
Last year I was honored with being chosen to be one of the survivor speakers at the Chicago walk. What a moving experience! It was simply awesome to be able to stand on that stage Sat morning and tell my story to a sea of over 5,000 pink walkers, blue crew, yellow youth crew and supporters. There were lots of tears.
Because of you and your contributions, another woman who gets the diagnosis I did, will be able to make more educated choices, and perhaps she won’t have to worry about constantly looking over her shoulder for fear of recurrence or a diagnosis of some other monster. She won’t have to tell her family….her children...of all the scary things she will have to battle simply to see them again tomorrow.
Why am I walking? How can I not? I am walking for me, for my children, for all cancer fighters, survivors, and I am walking for you. As with most survivors, simply getting an all clear, or remission, is not the end of it. It is dealing with the expensive meds that have side effects that all too often cause some other kind of condition. Among these are various forms of blood cancers (as in my case), heart conditions, skin cancer, and depression to name a few. So while the hope for a cure is fantastic, and more importantly, realistic, we must also fight for a preventative. My goal is to have people walking into the doctor’s office not to get chemo or radiation treatments, but rolling up their sleeve to get a vaccine, a cute band-aid and maybe if they are really good, a sucker. I walk because pink ribbons belong in little girl’s hair, and not on their shirts.
Think about a future without cancer. Without a loved one having to hear the words “You have cancer…Think about that and the power that is now in your hands to change a life…to SAVE one. What if some stranger had done that for you? Who would you get to hug one more time, laugh with until your cheeks hurt?
Click on DONATE, you won't regret it.
Click on DONATE, you won't regret it....
In Meg's Own Words...
