My first experience with Susan G Komen was with the Susan G Komen 5k in Indianapolis with Joggin’ For Jo’s Jugs team in honor of my dear friend Joanne, who was diagnosed with malignant breast cancer in 2007. She was an ambassador for the Indianapolis Komen walks. She never let you see that she might be suffering, and if she had to live with this diagnosis she wasn’t going to take it lying down. She was a fighter! And if she was going to be in it, she was all in and loved her pink bubble. She started a team and we walked and jogged with and for her several events over the years. In 2016 she lost her 9 year battle. She couldn’t fight anymore. She was tired and her body was exhausted but even in those last days she still found a way to smile and laugh through her pain. She was a true inspiration in faith and positivity!
Cancer has been significant to me, and has impacted my family in many ways. As most know, my father had cancer 3 times. The 1st and 3rd, renal cancer. The cancer that took him from us when I was only 21. To say this impacted my life, and my family’s life, is an understatement. And in 2016 I lost my Aunt Carol to uterine cancer, and later that year, Joanne to breast cancer, and 2 best friends since have gone through a breast cancer diagnosis.
2008 was my first experience with a fundraising and charity event, and may have been my introduction to fundraising for a cause and a cancer charity, but it sparked a fire under me to continue fighting for a cause through these types of events and even working for a cancer charity organization for 5 years, because if we can find a cure for one type of cancer we can surely find a cure, period. I walked the 3-Day in 2017, 20-mile 1-Day in 2023, and I am honored to be able to do the 3-Day again this year with your help!
So, I ask for your help once again in helping me not just reach my fundraising goal while I embark on a journey of training for and walking a 3-day, 60 mile walk, but to help me to fund a cure for a great cause so that when the 1 in 3 people overall, and 1 in 8 women with breast cancer hear those words, “you have cancer” they know that diagnosis is no longer a long, scary, life-changing road ahead but maybe filled with treatments that don’t make them sick, exhausted and change their life in so many ways.
A little or a lot, a sponsorship, or even some company on a training walk all mean the world to me and I appreciate your help! Thank you! Let’s kick cancers butt together!
Please support me as I commit to an incredible challenge. The Susan G. Komen 3-Day is a 60-mile walk over the course of three days. It will be hard, but it’s not as hard as breast cancer. It’s not as hard as chemo. It’s not as hard as getting bad news at your latest scan. It’s not as hard as saying goodbye. And that’s why I know I have to do this. That’s why I’m walking and why I’m raising money – to end breast cancer forever.
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