Your support means a lot...to me and to thousands of others.

My personal inspiration to walk includes:

My sister’s boyfriend Duane, who I met for the first time at my wedding just over a year ago.

Duane & Su

Duane and Su went to Gilda’s Club over a year ago, hoping to find friendship and understanding among peers. They also found love, companionship, and partnership. Their stories of love, happiness, and fun; and pursuit and support of their own and each other’s goals, endeavors, and health, is awe inspiring. The word hope has been redefined in my personal dictionary by their story. I started considering Duane family from the minute my sister first told me how much they mean to each other. And that has only increased as I’ve gotten to know him.

My friend and co-worker, Mark, is a leukemia survivor. Mark is the best kind of person to work with – sharing his knowledge, listening to my questions and ideas, and not telling me to go away when I have another question (which I often do), always kind and supportive. We also talk about those daily details that make up life – the laughs, family and life at home, the special events, the “uneventful” weekends of movies and yard work. The daily interactions that are easy to take for granted when we’re not careful. I remind myself of the value of these daily joys when life seems harder than it really is in the grand scheme.

I know many people who have been touched by various types of cancer, including my sister, mother, and mother-in-law. There are too many to count and I think of them and their loved ones even though I cannot name them all here.

Thank you to my long-time friend, Sarah, and her daughter, Allie, who have invited me, and encourage me to walk with Team Cow Girls. The Cow Girls' reasons for walking, like so many, are touching and inspiring. If you’d like read about them, please check out Sarah's page.

These days it’s hard to find anyone who has not been touched by cancer, directly or indirectly. One thing I've learned is that cancer is indiscriminate in all ways. Whoever or whatever your reason for considering and possibly making a donation, thank you. Any donation could help anyone – loved one, stranger, or yourself.

The Society funds lifesaving cancer research that has contributed to major advances in the treatment of blood cancers and many other types of cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and stem cell transplants that have prolonged and enhanced the lives of patients. New targeted therapies that kill cancer cells without harming normal tissue have already begun to provide drugs and procedures that are improving quality of life.

But more research is critically needed:

• Every five minutes someone is diagnosed with blood cancer. Every ten minutes, someone dies.
• Leukemia causes more deaths among children than any other cancer
• More than 20,000 Americans died from lymphoma in 2006
• The survival rate for myeloma is just 33 per cent

Please make a donation to support my Light The Night Walk and help save lives. Be sure to check my Web site frequently to see my progress, and again, thanks for your support!