We’re Racing to beat Cancer!

Last weekend, I was honored to be able to join my oncologist, Dr. Fisher, and his fabulous right-hand person, Margreet Love, at the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life event. Of course, our team was a little on the pathetic side, since we didn’t actually DO the relay all night (or really during much of the day). We walked a few laps here and there, but for the most part we sat around talking. Most of the members of the team were going through chemo, so they had a good excuse for not being super energetic. Unfortunately, since I haven’t been on chemo for a year, I don’t think that I can use that excuse anymore.

Dr. Fisher was one of the featured speakers at the event with the keynote being given by a one of his other patients, Gary, who was told he had just months to live seven years ago. Every major cancer center in the country told him that they could not do anything for him. However, Dr. Fisher said he would try to help. And here we are, seven years later, with Gary proudly proclaiming that he is cancer-free. It was incredibly inspirational.

Which brings me to my next source of inspiration – the Get Your Rear in Gear walk/run on October 4 in San Francisco. (By the way, the event in SF is actually 4 miles, rather than 5K – not sure why, but in the interest of full disclosure, I wanted to bring this to your attention.) I am truly hoping that we can put together a great team to do this walk/run around Lake Merced. To sign up to be on our terrific team, just do the following:

Go to: http://www.getyourrearingear.com/events/get-your-rear-in-gear-events/san-francisco-october-2009

If you are going to run/walk with our team, click on “Register Today”

Please note that it is a little bit of work signing up, but just plow through it and you WILL get to the end. I promise.

If you are unable to join our team, but would like to donate, click on “Donate Today”

I recognize that many of you may not be able to be on the team, but you still can participate in a very meaningful way. Please consider donating to my run (ok – truthfully most likely it will be a walk, but it still counts). You just input my name and it will give you an opportunity to pledge.

So what is the name of our team? Well – our placeholder is “Eve’s Smartasses.” Since I’m not so sure that the name is “family friendly” enough for this race, we may either change the name of the team before the race (anyone have any cute ideas?) or we’ll add a tag line something like this “A smart ass is one that gets checked.” Obviously, this is still a work in progress….

So - we’ve got a little over a month before show time. I really really really hope that I’ll have a nice big team of friends to participate with me.

One last note - when I originally found out about this race – I was very enthusiastic. To be honest, my enthusiasm waned in the last couple of months when my life and all of my responsibilities overwhelmed me. However, I have become friends with a young colon cancer patient over the past several weeks. This past week he had to tell his young children that the doctors have given him less than 6 months to live. He is in the hospital fighting valiantly every single day to prove those doctors wrong. I am now walking/running for him and every other colon cancer patient who desperately needs the medical community to find a cure. I pray that it will be a very very long time before I have the conversation that Mark had last week with his children. And therefore, I am officially rededicating myself to do everything possible to raise not only funds but also public awareness to beat this destructive disease.

Please join me in my fight.