I still support the LiveSTRONG Foundation and continue to volunteer my time to this cancer support organization! I am going to retell a story that I have told many times but it is worth telling.
I lost my Mom to a recurrence of cancer in October 2003. Between 2003 and 2011 I found cycling through a friend at work who had lost her Father to cancer in 2002 and we both needed something to channel our energy and feelings of loss. We found 24 Hours of Booty in Charlotte. Spencer Leuders, a local attorney, had started this event a couple of years prior and it seemd like a natural fit. 24 Hours of Booty had an established relationship with the LiveSTRONG Foundation (then known as the Lance Armstrong Foundation). I had followed Lance's story and became a fan of cycling and like many of us chose to believe.....NOT in the athlete but in the cancer SURVIVOR. Over the years between 2004 and 2011 I immersed myself in supporting 24 Hours of Booty, rode a lot of miles (some years) and not a lot of miles most years but most importantly raised a lot of money for cancer support activities for them.
Over the years between 2004 and 2011 I came to know many cancer survivors and unfortunately lost several friends to cancer. I also got to know the stories of people like the Kiblers from Florida whose wonderful little son Camden only lived 8 months due to cancer, my son's high school baseball coach who was a childhood cancer survivor, and many many others. I am afraid to mention any because I am obviously forgetting some. The key is that I learned their stories and became even more dedicated to helping cancer survivors through LiveSTRONG.
Then in April 2011, cancer paid me a personal visit with a diagnosis of skin cancer. I was diagnosed and treated with the most common and easiest to treat form of skin cancer: basal cell carcinoma. I never expected to hear those words myself..."you have cancer" but there they were. That is when I started learning more about what I had done to myself so many years ago as a teenager/college kid trying to get and maintain a tan. I also dedicated myself that year to raising more money than I ever had for the cause and was grateful that I had donors to help me reach $15,500 for cancer advocacy and support services through 24 Hours of Booty. In September of that year I lost my job of 15 years and luckily it took me a little over 90 days to find a new one. Lucky in that I was invited to Ride for the Roses, the celebration of top fundraisers at the Austin, TX LiveSTRONG Challenge. It was there that I spent two minutes riding with Lance. That was an honor; however, it was not the most important thing that happened to me that weekend.
From the time I was diagnosed and treated I never really felt like a "survivor". My cancer really wasn't life threatening. My cancer didn't require months of horrible chemo and radiation treatments. My cancer was, well according to what a lot of people told me, really wasn't cancer and I was simply over reacting. Well, the other attendees from the other 24 Hours of Booty rides wouldn't accept that I wasn't a survivor. The morning of the 5K, as we approached the finish line there was two lines...one for survivors and one for everyone else. My friends made sure that I went through the survivor finish line (I guess you could say they herded me into that lane). One of the people I met that weekend was good friends with Doug Ulman, cancer survivor and CEO of the Foundation. My friend encouraged me to talk to Doug about my feelings about not being a survivor and I did. On the day of the actual bike ride, I found myself standing Doug at the refreshment tent....so I summoned up my courage and went over and asked him if I could ask him a question. I told him about my diagnosis and my feelings of not being a survivor. Doug looked me in the eye, now remember this is a guy who had life threatening cancer, and asked me "has a doctor told you that you have cancer?" to which I had to say yes. He then said, you are a survivor. He went on to say that we can't compare treatments or types of cancer. He went on to say that no two cancers are alike and no two treatment plans are alike and that if I tried to compare my treatment to others I was doing myself a huge disservice. That 5 minute conversation really drove home the message of survivorship....!
Since that time, I have changed dermatologist and am now on a second "more aggressive" form of treatment for my arms. The most recent is what prompted me to start blogging again.
While the LiveSTRONG Foundation was started by Lance Armstrong and his cancer survival story is well known...the Foundation is ran by a small but dedicated staff of folks who truly believe in cancer survivorship mission and so do I! That is why I still LiveSTRONG!!!!
I lost my Mom to a recurrence of cancer in October 2003. Between 2003 and 2011 I found cycling through a friend at work who had lost her Father to cancer in 2002 and we both needed something to channel our energy and feelings of loss. We found 24 Hours of Booty in Charlotte. Spencer Leuders, a local attorney, had started this event a couple of years prior and it seemd like a natural fit. 24 Hours of Booty had an established relationship with the LiveSTRONG Foundation (then known as the Lance Armstrong Foundation). I had followed Lance's story and became a fan of cycling and like many of us chose to believe.....NOT in the athlete but in the cancer SURVIVOR. Over the years between 2004 and 2011 I immersed myself in supporting 24 Hours of Booty, rode a lot of miles (some years) and not a lot of miles most years but most importantly raised a lot of money for cancer support activities for them.
Over the years between 2004 and 2011 I came to know many cancer survivors and unfortunately lost several friends to cancer. I also got to know the stories of people like the Kiblers from Florida whose wonderful little son Camden only lived 8 months due to cancer, my son's high school baseball coach who was a childhood cancer survivor, and many many others. I am afraid to mention any because I am obviously forgetting some. The key is that I learned their stories and became even more dedicated to helping cancer survivors through LiveSTRONG.
Then in April 2011, cancer paid me a personal visit with a diagnosis of skin cancer. I was diagnosed and treated with the most common and easiest to treat form of skin cancer: basal cell carcinoma. I never expected to hear those words myself..."you have cancer" but there they were. That is when I started learning more about what I had done to myself so many years ago as a teenager/college kid trying to get and maintain a tan. I also dedicated myself that year to raising more money than I ever had for the cause and was grateful that I had donors to help me reach $15,500 for cancer advocacy and support services through 24 Hours of Booty. In September of that year I lost my job of 15 years and luckily it took me a little over 90 days to find a new one. Lucky in that I was invited to Ride for the Roses, the celebration of top fundraisers at the Austin, TX LiveSTRONG Challenge. It was there that I spent two minutes riding with Lance. That was an honor; however, it was not the most important thing that happened to me that weekend.
From the time I was diagnosed and treated I never really felt like a "survivor". My cancer really wasn't life threatening. My cancer didn't require months of horrible chemo and radiation treatments. My cancer was, well according to what a lot of people told me, really wasn't cancer and I was simply over reacting. Well, the other attendees from the other 24 Hours of Booty rides wouldn't accept that I wasn't a survivor. The morning of the 5K, as we approached the finish line there was two lines...one for survivors and one for everyone else. My friends made sure that I went through the survivor finish line (I guess you could say they herded me into that lane). One of the people I met that weekend was good friends with Doug Ulman, cancer survivor and CEO of the Foundation. My friend encouraged me to talk to Doug about my feelings about not being a survivor and I did. On the day of the actual bike ride, I found myself standing Doug at the refreshment tent....so I summoned up my courage and went over and asked him if I could ask him a question. I told him about my diagnosis and my feelings of not being a survivor. Doug looked me in the eye, now remember this is a guy who had life threatening cancer, and asked me "has a doctor told you that you have cancer?" to which I had to say yes. He then said, you are a survivor. He went on to say that we can't compare treatments or types of cancer. He went on to say that no two cancers are alike and no two treatment plans are alike and that if I tried to compare my treatment to others I was doing myself a huge disservice. That 5 minute conversation really drove home the message of survivorship....!
Since that time, I have changed dermatologist and am now on a second "more aggressive" form of treatment for my arms. The most recent is what prompted me to start blogging again.
While the LiveSTRONG Foundation was started by Lance Armstrong and his cancer survival story is well known...the Foundation is ran by a small but dedicated staff of folks who truly believe in cancer survivorship mission and so do I! That is why I still LiveSTRONG!!!!
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