As I sit here I am only 7 days away from running my fourth full marathon in Cincinatti. I will be attempting to complete the Flying Pig Marathon there on May 1st. Like many other marathon events, the Flying Pig puts a major emphasis on raising funds for charities. Considering the fact that I raised a good bit of money as a St Jude Hero to help cure childhood cancer in December, I wasn't going to try to raise any money for this marathon. I thought that asking people to give again so quickly was a little much. As the time drew closer I really felt like I needed to do so again. Time is of the essence with this disease.
If you read my previous blog post, you know that I am passionate about finding a way to beat cancer no matter who it effects. Since my last post my Paw Paw passed away from terminal brain cancer. Cancer hits really close to home with me. I am also especially moved to act when I run across stories like the little boy a coworker of mine has been telling me about. His name is Seth Bradely Doyel. He was diagnosed with luekemia a few months ago at only two years of age.
I remember the day that Jamie called me to tell me about her nephew being diagnosed with leukemia. Many thoughts ran through my mind. The first question I always ask is, "Why do these kids have to suffer?!" In my mind it is so unfair for a child like Seth to have to deal with this disease. I also wondered what I would do if this were my two year old? My heart hurt for Jamie and her family because I knew they were scared and wondering what was going to happen.
Automatically though, I knew his chances for being cured and surviving were huge. So many strides have been made in cancer research that a good percentage of children who are diagnosed with luekemia have an excellent chance to beat this disease. You can never know for sure but odds are good for Seth. I tried to comfort Jamie with that knowledge but words can never help in a time when a child that so close to you has been given such traumatic news.
Unfortunately, many kids are diagnosed with other cancers that we haven't been so succesful at beating. I think back to the kids at St Jude who have been diagnosed with neuroblastoma or many other cancers that have such a high mortality rate. Their hopes are not as great as Seth's. Their hope is that we do what it takes to beat cancer and work to find a cure for this disease.
As we go about our daily lives we have so many things going on. We get tied up doing things and we develop our routines. We like to stay in those routines. If something ever messes up our routines we get upset and even angry. What if your routine were disturbed by the news that your two year old had been diagnosed with cancer? That is a big "what if" but it happened to Jamie and her family. We can all say it won't happen to us but it could.
Where are our priorities? What is important to us? I know personally that I have many things that come way before my first thought about giving to beat cancer. I love Auburn football, I love my job, and yes, running is so much more inportant to me when I really admit it to myself.
Yes, I am raising money again and I need your help. I am trying to help my cousin Addison's Relay for Life Team raise $2600 this year. We would like to raise $100 for every mile that I run at the Flying Pig. We are halfway there. Just $5 from you could help us reach our goal. Can you help? Will you help?
If you can, please go to:
http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFLFY11MS?px=20094224&pg=personal&fr_id=28603
One of the slogans for Relay for Life is that they want to create one more birthday for people who have cancer. Seth has a real good chance of many more birthdays because of past research. I am also sure that his family could use as much help as possible right now. If you would like to give directly to the family please email me at chrishumphries@yahoo.com.
Help us creat many more birthdays for many more children!
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