Words from a 2-time cancer survivor

My sister, Karen, has seen some very rough times lately, but has also faced some significant triumphs. I am proud to have her on my team and am proud to represent her and others on my quest to fight cancer as I race in Atlanta on November 27. Before you read her story below, please take a moment to click here and read her personal message to her friends and family that she worte before I switched my race from Dublin to Atlanta. Go Team!

AIS helping to steady my aim

I have yet to meet some of my biggest supporters. The staff at Allyn International Services, Inc. in Ft. Myers, FL have been working hard during their third quarter to help me fight cancer. I am very humbled to realize that there still is a strong current of gracious and compassionate humanity in this world. Their team has been hosting events such as bake sales and wine tasting events during their third quarter specifically to help me reach the fundraising finishline. Their help and support is an invaluable boost to my morale and at a time when I am struggling to meet my fundraising goal. I hope that I can return their kindness or pass it forward to others as an expression of my thanks for their selfless charity. You can join them too by making a tax deductible donation here. Please tell your friends about AIS and this site too.

Usually when one thinks of the verdant fields and hills in Ireland, the color green comes to mind. Well, my focus on Dublin these past few months has been during the 20th Anniversary year of the Team In Training, that is being celebrated with the royal color of purple. My race to cure blood-related cancer involves two races really, one that will get me across the finishline of the Dublin Marathon on October 27, and another more important one that will raise a significant amount of money for cancer research and outreach by October 10. That's where I need your help.

Please consider joining me as a Support Team member by donating to the cause. Your tax deductible donation to the LLS will be used to fund research and programs that will improve the quality of life of patients and their families. In return, I have also arranged a gift for you as a way of expressing my thanks for your support. Support Team levels include:

Team Captain - $1000

All Star - $500

Chapmion - $100

Varsity - $50

Please check back here often to see how both races are going. I look forward to having you on my team.

The Face of Cancer

It's not just one person at a time. Cancer usually strikes in numbers. It may be just one person who is a carrier, but we are all linked to each other.

My brother Stephen, while not the first in the family to have had Leukemia, was the first in my immediate family to pass away. While it is unfortunate to go at any age, his passing at age 41 meant that he left a wife and four young kids and a host of family and friends.

I have included a picture of him and his family. It is a very moving portrait to me in that it illustrates the kind of grace and strength that Stephen could show under pressure. He rushed to the family photo shoot just minutes from an appointment with his doctor who had just delivered the blow of a leukemia diagnosis. He put on a smile and got through it before sharing his burden with the rest of the family. The next day Stephen entered the hospital and his family's life was never the same.

I really miss Stephen, but I doubt I do as much as his wife Gigi, and kids Brittany, Heather, Wesley, and Daniel, nor as much as my parents. I am grateful for his life and look forward to seeing him again someday after this life. I am also particularly grateful for Tony who met Gigi several years later and who has stepped into the role of husband, father, friend and brother. It was surely a lot for him to soak in all at once, but it shows that there truly can be silver linings even to the saddest of losses.

You can provide a silver lining to a family in need. Please consider participating with me and the the Team in Training by making a donation here (http://pages.teamintraining.org/vtnt/dublin08/cmorganfqm).

First Steps

Everything we do requires taking that first step. Sometimes we get right to it. Other times it takes a while. Sometimes we are simply thrust into it. This is picture of me at a time when I wasn't too many steps beyond my first. I am the one walking to my twin brother and my Dad, who ironically was the exact same age of 38 that I am right now when this picture was taken. The look on my brother's face, I think, captures the essence of joy one finds in completing a journey, or at least a significant part of it, especially when there is a safe haven or a rock to lean on.

The first steps down a cancer-related path for my immediate family were taken by my dad. In the early 1980s, he was diagnosed with a form of lymphoma which has now been classified as a form of leukemia. Because of this, at an early age, I got to join him with my family on that path. It was one of apprehansion, wondering at what point we were to become a broken family. One of ephiphany about the fragility of life. One of cleaving together and acknowledgment that while we religiously believe that families are forever, in this life there are few, if any, assurances that it will last. On the positive side, we ate more healthfully, we savored life experiences a little more, and relied more strongly on hope and faith and each other.

My dad is now in his seventies, and unless he hasn't told us everything, his doctors report that he will likely die of old age before he dies of the leukemia. I am grateful for that and know that many people are not so lucky. Having lost a brother to leukemia and watched a sister go twice through chemo for breast cancer and a stage-four recurrence, and having watched another sister lose a significant part of her singing voice from thyroid cancer as well as my mother for the same, the anxiety hasn't seemed to go away. Maybe I am much more seasoned these days at dealing with it. I guess I am learning slowly that I can take the momentum of that fear and redirect it toward more positive ventures like the Team in Training. Please join me in this by considering a dontation to my race and the team as we prepare to go to Dublin. Even if you are not in a position to donate, I hope that you would refer others that you know to my websites. Just forward them this link:

http://pages.teamintraining.org/vtnt/dublin08/cmorganfqm

It just takes that first step. Thank you for reading.

Circling the Wagons

In Utah, where I moved from recently, the end of July is a special time. It was in July of 1847 that the first pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley and July 24 is now commemorated as a state holiday. The most recent historical period of settlement was mainly a result of Mormon Pioneers traveling across the plains from Nauvoo, IL in 1847 fleeing persecution from mobs and hoping to set up a final resting place where they would be free to create their own sense of Zion. As soon as they arrived in the West, a great gathering of people from all over the world began. They came by boat to various parts of the US and then made their way to the West over land. The earliest ones typically used wagons pulled by oxen or horses or used handcarts.

It was typical for them to circle the wagons at night and build fires in the middle to maximize safety from predators. Collectively, their numbers and formation provided support and a sense of peace for the night and allowed a respite from their slow and harrowing travels that often took months.

A modern-day trek

My sister, Karen (pictured above on her new "wagon"), recently used this concept in a plea for assistance to cancer research. About five years ago, she had breast cancer. She went into remission, but this winter she was diagnosed with cancer again, this time in several areas of her body. She is nearing the end of her full blown treatments of radiation and chemo and we are continually praying for her health as well as for my other sister who recently found out that her thyroid cancer is back.

Karen recently shared the following: "When I got cancer the first time, I hated it. I avoided anything I could about it. I didn't go to support groups. I didn't do the cancer walks. I didn't go to the dinners you get invited to as a cancer person by various organizations. I didn't talk with other survivors. I didn't want to be called a survivor. I thought of myself as a perfectly healthy person that had this uninvited intruder that I would ignore,except to do the treatments the drs. prescribed. Then I would be done with it and get on with my life. . .I resented the treatments and that I had to do them. While I didn't curse God, I did allow for the fact He had made a mistake and zapped the wrong person with cancer. It didn't go into people like me, but I would tolerate His mistake and get the treatments over and done and try to forget about it. When people would ask what they could do to help me most of the time "I'd say nothing, I don't need anything."

She then told the family, that in hind-sight, as she faced it again, she felt that she was wrong. She has read many books, explored all sorts of treatments, traditional and non-. A friend of hers who is also fighting cancer shared a book with her, Make Your Own Miracle that Karen recommends for everyone, even those without cancer. The book shares the experiences of 50+ stories of cancer survivors whose stories are all different, but share several common themes:

1. They outlived grim life expectancy predictions,


2. They had faith in God,


3. They were 100% behind their treatment choice,


4. They had a strong belief in their cure or longevity and never gave up,


5. They had and called on a lot of people to support them.

Time to call the wagons in . . .

Well, now it is our turn. Karen continued in a letter to the family:

"Most have asked what you could do to help. While I don't know what the other people's responses have been, I'll bet they have been like mine, "Nothing, just pray." Then we keep most of our private battles private, thinking there isn't much anyone can do about them anyway. I think we have short-changed ourselves. I now believe all the cancer walks, ride-for-a-cure, whatever anyone does along those lines helps us all. I want you to do them."

So I am. I have a chance to not only do it for Karen, but for my dad and his leukemia, for my Mom and sister Andrea and their thyroid cancer, and for others who are fighting as well. I can do it in memory of my brother Stephen who died of leukemia and left a beautiful wife and kids. I can do it for those I have never met and who may benefit from my time and resources, to help those who are pioneering new territory for cures to cancer and ways of making treatments more bearable and paving the way for a better quality of life.

Will you please take this opportunity to join me? Of course, my main goal right now is raising money for this marathon event, and I really need all the support I can get (Click here); but even if you are not able to contribute at this time, please consider forwarding the URLs of my web pages to others and please consider volunteering your time for those in need.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog and thank you for considering your part in the circle. You really can make a difference.