Why I walk

The three day is now 11 weeks away and it has been on my mind more and more. Maybe that is because I am getting things ready, maybe it is because if I see something pink I buy it, or maybe it is because of all the training. The day is drawing near and I don't think that I have ever told you all why I walk. Growing up I always knew about breast cancer. My grandmother is a two-time survivor.

When my mom was eleven, my grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer. She was a widow with four children- the oldest was 20 the youngest was my mom. My grandma was sent to the hospital and told that she had a few weeks, months at most. My mom was not allowed to visit the hospital and she lived with the idea that she would be an orphan and never see her mom again.

Luckily, my grandma is a fighter. I don't think the words give up are in her dictionary. She fought against the cancer and won. She jokes that God and Satan can't decide which one gets her and until that happens she is still around. She was diagnosed a few years later and beat it back again. My grandma is a 46-year survivor. She has also survived five other cancers. She has taught me not to give up, to fight through everything, to be strong no matter what life throws at you.

When I was 14, my mom had an abnormal mammogram. I was so nervous as we waited for tests to come back. I was so worried that I was going to lose my mom. I have vowed since that day that no one else should ever have to go through that. No one else should have to worry about losing their mom.

Unfortunately, we still have to do that. I have held my breath as friends go in for abnormal screenings. I have cried when biopsies have come back with negative and positive news. I have prayed for so many people, their families, and their health. I have attended funerals for lives cut short. I don't want my nieces to worry about their mom and their aunt. I don't want them to worry about their friends. I don't want them to anyone to have to go through that pain.

I am a true believer that once we find the cure for one cancer, we will find it for the rest. We can stop a disease that has taken my grandfather, that attacks my uncles and aunts, that has weakened friends. It is the one thing that scares me.

One of you made me a lovely stitching for me last year that says: What if the big C was cure. That hangs right above my desk and it has become my goal. If it is running, walking sixty miles, sleeping in tents, showering in trailers, orbegging for money before my life is over I will make sure that the big C is cure.



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