The Fight – Team AllEars

I would like to think that someday teams like Team Allears will not be necessary. I am not talking about eliminating camaraderie, running, or Walt Disney World from our lives, but the idea that we need to raise money for the fight against cancer. I know my group of friends on Team Allears and I am sure that if cancer did not exist then we would find another disease to fight, but cancer decided to try and take on our friend Deb Wills about 25 years ago and not only did it fail in that battle, it now has to deal with us!

Although a person is considered a survivor from the moment of diagnosis, not everyone has a happy ending. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women today (after lung cancer) and is the most common cancer among women, excluding nonmelanoma skin cancers. In 2011 alone, over 1.3 million women from across the globe will be diagnosed and 465,000 survivors will be lost.

Team Allears supports Deb and, by extension, the Avon Walk For Breast Cancer because of the great work that organization does in the fight against breast cancer. The efforts of last year’s team went to support continued research on a biomarker that may be able to identify breast cancer patients who are at a higher risk of recurrence, research on biomarkers that can accurately distinguish breast cancers that are very aggressive from less aggressive types, mobile mammography service known as the “Mammovan” which serves 2,500 women in Washington, D.C., and numerous patient navigation programs. Avon does not just support the research that will be employed in the fight against cancer tomorrow, they support those that are living with the disease today.

Research says that one in three Americans will eventually develop some form of cancer in their lifetime. Those who do not develop cancer will most likely know someone directly fighting the disease. For most of my life I was lucky enough not knowing what cancer looked like. Cancer was always something I heard about, but not something I ever really “worried” about. I started smoking when I was 14, starting drinking before I was 21 and did not lead the most healthiest of lifestyles. By the time I was 22 I was smoking my 1st cigarette of the day as soon as I awoke, with my pack next to my alarm clock.

My wife had the opposite experience. Many of her family members fought the disease as she grew up. Her mother was a cancer survivor, having beaten breast cancer. Shortly after we were married, my mother-in-law went in for a scan shortly after her 5 year anniversary of beating cancer (for those who don’t know, that 5 year mark is a MAJOR milestone in the fight)… and they found a spot on her lung. For the first time in my life I saw cancer. I saw my mother-in-law go through surgeries, chemo, and radiation. I saw her lay in bed unable to move, unable to eat, but I saw her FIGHT.

We lost Pat, an amazing women, an anchor in her community, in January 2005. Her funeral was like a head of state had left us. People lined up in the rain for hours to pay their respect. I had never seen any thing like it. I saw for the first time what cancer can take. Pat never got to see her grandkids and only got to be at one of her daughters’ weddings. Five girls lost their mother, two were still in high school.

The following month I took as position with the American Cancer Society as a Community Manager. I was angry and I was going to get directly involved in the fight. I was going to do what I could to fight this awful disease. I had already quit smoking, l and after having been rattled by losing Pat I was ready to make cancer my full time job.

Shortly afterwards, my grandpa went to the doctor, got x-rays, and was in the hospital. Having gone in for a bad cough and weight loss, the doctors found cancer in his lungs, liver, spine and the base of his scull. After having never seen cancer growing up, there was MY grandfather, seven months after having lost Pat and six months after going to work for the ACS, laying in a hospital bed hearing the extent of his cancer.

They started him on a aggressive treatment plan to get it under control… to buy time. The doctors thought they could manage the disease to the point he would have six months to a year. Two weeks later I got the call, that horrible call no one who has moved away from home wants to get.

He held on long enough for his grandson and his wife to drive from West Virginia to the Jersey Shore. He passed 15 minutes after we arrived. He got to hear me make one more bad joke and I got to kiss his forehead and tell him goodbye. He passed two months before his first great grandson (named Patrick in part to honor my lost mother in law) was born.

Over the coming months articles will be written on this blog about everything from training programs to favorite music selections to diet to how to get up for a run at 2:30 in the morning, but make no mistake. Team Allears is in a fight against cancer.

We may not be the scientists who will find the cure or the doctor who will administer that cure, but we will be the ones that helped fund that cure. We will be the ones that raised awareness about the fight against cancer.

Please stay tuned as to how you can get involved, either by joining us as a runner, supporting us as a friend or donor, or simply doing what you can to prevent cancer in your own life or the lives of your loved ones.

We are Team Allears and we RUN WITH PURPOSE.