Making Strides

Posted on | June 21, 2010 | No Comments

On October 24th, I’ll be walking in the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer 5k and I’d like your help in reaching my goal: $10 from 100 people.

Here’s why:

Throughout our lives, we meet and interact with a lot of people: family, friends, co-workers, acquaintances and strangers. Sometimes, if we’re lucky, we get the chance to know a truly good and decent person, someone who really does see the best in other people and lives a life filled with love to the fullest.

My aunt Carol is one of those people. But she’s more than just a good person – she’s funny and has a wicked sense of humor and a quick wit. One of her lifelong pursuits is to make me into A Lady, a task at which she is sadly failing. Still, she’ll stop at nothing to get me into a skirt (despite my protests) and to get me to learn to properly blow my nose, whatever the hell that means. She’s always been there for me when I needed a shoulder to lean on and, in many ways, has been like a second mother to me – in fact, she pretty much does treat me like one of her children, putting me to work whenever I visit. “Family or not,” she tells me (only half-joking), “you still have to earn your keep.”

I used to think that if I concentrated hard enough, I could magically trigger the family genes that would make me into as good a person as she is, which doesn’t actually make any sense whatsoever, but it didn’t stop me from trying. So when she was diagnosed with breast cancer about two years ago, the best description of my reaction would be to say that I freaked out – and not in a good way. I couldn’t bear to even think about the possibility of something maybe happening to her. And I felt helpless, wishing there was something I could do anything to make her feel better or to make the cancer go away.

Though I sadly lack a magic wand and power over cancer remains beyond my abilities, I don’t have to feel completely helpless. It’s because of my aunt – and all the other women in my life who are just as important – that I walk in the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer 5k.

I’ve been participating in Making Strides long before my aunt was diagnosed, but having a personal reason to do so makes the walk that much more meaningful – and makes me much more determined to do everything I can to make sure my aunt and all the other women stay cancer-free.

In the past, my approach to fund-raising has always been haphazard and unfocused. I raised what I could and was happy with that. Then I made my 15 Before 30 list and set a goal for myself: to deliberately and thoughtfully raise $1,000 for the Making Strides walk. $1,000 may not seem like a lot when compared with the millions raised every year, but it’s a significant goal for me.

So I’m asking for your help – help for me in reaching my goal and help for my aunt and women across the country, so that one day breast cancer becomes as outdated and rare as polio and smallpox. You can visit my ACS Making Strides web page to find out more and to make a secure online donation. I know the economy sucks and people don’t have a lot of extra money to give away. So I’m only asking for small donations: $10 from 100 people to reach my goal. I have 125 days, 18 weeks, to succeed.

I hope you’ll help me, so that no one ever has to feel helpless again when it comes to breast cancer.

[Photo Credit: Google Image Search]

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