relay wrap up (aka the post where i jump on my soapbox)...

Well hello there everyone! We got back home this afternoon from a fullfilling albeit exhausting weekend. Friday our relay team pumped gas at the Casey's across the street from where the Relay was being held. People were super generous and gave over $600 in the 10 hours we pumped gas. In the end, our little team (my mom, grandma, aunt, uncle and myself) raised $2300 for the American Cancer Society.
As I was walking early Saturday morning (around 3am) I was mentally writing a blog post, I thought about it all day on Saturday and for most of today, so I guess it is time to write it down. I probably should have written this earlier, but I guess as I was walking I was thinking about why I personally do this. Why I take myself out of my comfort zone and ask people to donate money and pump gas for strangers. Here is a little about why I do this.

As you know, my grandpa passed away 5 years ago in January from lung cancer. At the time of his diagnosis and subsequent tests he was told that the good news was that his cancer was slow growing and responded well to treatment. Unfortunately, it turned out that in his case neither was true, 7 weeks from the day he was diagnosed, he passed away. There is so much about this disease we just don't know, and will never know until we have the money to study it and come up with new treatments, new ways to tackle it. The speaker at the relay told her story, which included her mother dying of cancer, 14 years later this woman was diagnosed with the exact same type of cancer, Stage Four non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. She has survived the same disease that killed her mother, we have made advances in the treatment, but it can't stop, there are still too many people dying of this disease. We can't sit around and wait for "someone else" to do something about this. WE have to fight, WE have to raise money, WE have to do something. My children were robbed of their great-grandpa because of this disease, I know raising money and walking for 12 hours one night a year won't bring him back, but if I, in any small way, can help some other child have days, weeks, months, or even years with their great-grandpa then I will keep doing this every year, and I will keep asking people for money, and I will keep giving my money. I urge you all to go to a Relay if you've never been, watch the survivor lap, listen to the speaker, and stay for the luminary ceremony...I promise you it is worth it.