Rhonda Griffith's Team In Training Page
Racing to save lives....
Welcome to my Team In Training home page.
I trained to participate in the PF Chang's Rock 'N' Roll Arizona Half Marathon (13.1 miles) on January 13, 2008 as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team In Training. My official "chip" time was 2 hours 49 minutes 29 seconds! There were 20,276 total finishers in the half marathon! All of us in Team In Training are raising funds to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma from taking more lives. I completed this event in honor of all individuals who are battling blood cancers. These people are the real heroes on our team, and your support helps us to cross the ultimate finish line - a cure!
Please make a donation to support my participation in Team In Training and help advance the Society's mission.
Many of you know that I had already completed one endurance event with the Team in Training program. My experience was such that I am so excited to be a part of this again! Initially, I ran in honor of Craig Cruit, who is the husband of a friend and colleague. He had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (b-cell/large cell) in May of 2000. That same month, a malignant mass was removed from his neck. Chemotherapy put the cancer in remission for 18 months. However, the lymphoma returned in May of 2002 and he began treatment again. He, first, participated in two study therapies and followed up with a protocol of intensive chemotherapy. This treatment was designed to prepare him for a stem cell transplant, which was a relatively new procedure. Craig reports that he feels blessed because his father died of lymphoma several years ago. He observed a man once full of vitality become frail and jaundiced to the point that he no longer had the strength to fight! Thankfully, Craig's experience was much different due to research in finding cures for this disease as well as similar cancers.
I began my previous training in September of 2003 for the Walt Disney World Marathon. I had just begun training when I heard about a man living in our community with Leukemia. His two children attended the same school in which I am employed. I asked his wife, Karen, to share her story:
In late September 2003, Marc was having what appeared to be a sinus infection. Upon Karen's urging, Marc went to the doctor and on October 3rd, was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid (AML) Leukemia. Marc began taking chemo pills and went into the hospital the following Monday to begin induction chemo. He was able to come home a month later. He continued the chemo treatments and in April received the wonderful news that his Leukemia was in remission! After a wonderful summer, Marc found that his Leukemia was back! His only hope was a bone marrow transplant in Seattle, WA. Marc was admitted on November 4, 2004 with a match from a man in England. Marc received his transplant on December 10th. Over the next four months, while in Seattle, Marc went through a lot of testing, medicine, and participated in over 15 studies for Leukemia. Marc was on 40 different medications and had 35 blood and platelet transfusions.
On March 17, 2005, Marc returned home from Seattle. However, by May 1st the Leukemia had returned and the word "terminal" was mentioned. After speaking with personel in Seattle, they were told not to give up hope! Although he did return to Seattle and begin chemo treatments again, Marc didn't make it. He passed away on May 19, 2005.
Karen wants everyone to know how imperative it is that you donate blood. She feels very blessed that she was married to Marc for 17 years. He was said to be a man of strong faith. Marc was a loving husband, father, son, brother, and friend. Due to his participation in studies, Marc's efforts have already saved two people! "God's blessing to all of you and your families."
More recently, my daughter, Madison, lost her grandfather, Curtis E. Griffith, Sr., to AML Leukemia on August 25, 2005. At that time Madison was three years old and her grandpa was seventy-three. To make things worse, her grandfather died on her father Tim's birthday.
I asked Madison's aunt, Carolyn Sue Griffith Desmond, if she would share the circumstances surrounding his diagnosis.
She writes, "Discovery of the leukemia came as routine lab work was performed upon Curtis's admission to the hospital following a heart attack. It was his second in ten years. His heart was stabilized. The leukemia became the primary focus of physicians and family, as well. Chemotherapy was the main course of treatment and the subsequent results of its use were initially promising. We were told he was in remission. However, within a week or two, the leukemia was back with a vengeance. Seven weeks and five days was the alarmingly brief pause between diagnosis and death.
Grandpa Curtis had never retired. His last day of "freedom" had found him perched on a three-story Victorian painting eves when he suffered the heart attack. He was a fiercely independent man, a widower for some eleven years. He climbed down off his ladder, paint brush in hand, and managed to drive home, finally, calling a friend for a ride to the hospital. To the end he fussed about his tools, monies that needed collected, and his cat, "Butch".
Certainly, more research on and funding for this devastating illness is vitally needed. AML has been linked to occupational hazards, such as exposure to benzene. Tobacco use is also suspected to be a contributing factor. Curtis painted for over fifty years in both commercial and residential settings. He was also a smoker. AML can race through one's veins and life as swiftly, unpredictably, and lethally as quicksilver. If not arrested, it leaves devastation, shock, and a void in many lives and hearts in its wake.
Curtis was my Dad and I miss him terribly."
As we were training, we often wore what looked like hospital bracelets. On those bracelets we write names of individuals who have been touched by cancer. A colleague of mine has asked that the following individuals be remembered: Fount Clark, Eileen Keller, and Gary Wallis. She would also like to honor: Tammy Sheets, Patti Minton, and Kathi Munoz. I also wanted to honor Aunt Jessica, Thomas Bryant, and Jim Fellers.
I hope you'll visit my web site often. Be sure to check back frequently to see my progress. With your support, I have reached my fundraising goal! In fact, TNT raised more than $3.6 million dollars for this marathon alone!!! Each and every one of you has made a difference!!!
THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
