10K. I know I can do it.

If you are new to the party, let me catch you up to speed.

I used to be fat. I gained about 70 pounds with my first pregnancy, and just never managed to lose them.

Until I knew I was done having kids. Then I decided it was time to get healthy.

I entered a triathlon. Training for it would force me to exercise and hopefully lose weight.

I didn’t really know how to train for a triathlon, so I entered one through Team in Training.

Team in Training raises money through endurance events for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society funds research to find cures and ensure access to treatments for blood cancer patients.

When I was 15, my one-year-old brother was diagnosed with leukemia.

He went through chemo, radiation, and a bone marrow transplant.

He died two weeks after his third birthday.

And that fucked me up pretty good.

After participating in the first triathlon with Team in Training in June 2012 and raising $1735, I kind of caught the bug.

Not just the triathlon bug, but the fundraising bug.

I really liked it. I couldn’t think of a better way to honor my brother and to help other families going through the same thing that my family had gone through.

So I signed up for another triathlon in September of 2012 with TNT.

I raised $2000 for that one.

The next summer, I competed in the New York City Triathlon.

I raised $2950 for LLS that time.

And then a couple months later, I ran the New York City Marathon for Team in Training, and I raised another $4430.

I feel strongly about fundraising.

People ask me why I keep getting involved in these fundraisers.

Strangers ask, but also friends and close members of my family ask.

People wonder, when we are in dire financial straits, why I devote so much time an energy to raising money for this cause. They suggest that maybe I should be devoting that time to earning money for my family.

Here is the thing.

I don’t know if you have ever watched your baby brother wither away and die from cancer in your own house.

I don’t know if you have ever held your dead baby brother in your arms, or if you have ever closed the half-opened eyelids of a dead human being like you see in the movies.

Yes. That happens.

I don’t know if you have ever stood in your bedroom window, at sixteen years old, and watched the funeral home director put your dead baby brother in the back of a hearse and drive away with him.

Forever.

That shit leaves a mark.

I have spent many, many years waiting for the time when I would know what I could do to honor my brother.

To keep his memory alive.

When Number 3 was a baby, a friend of mine participated in a triathlon with Team in Training. I had asked her about it. And I thought to myself, “One day, I will do that to honor my brother.”

Then I started writing the blog, and it was gaining popularity, and I needed to lose weight, and I knew I was done having kids, and everything just kind of fell into place.

We don’t have money. But we are all healthy.

Things could be much, much, much worse.

And if I am in a position to help other people, I am going to do it.

Because many people have helped us.

And I believe that one of my purposes in writing this blog is to do that.

To raise money for cancer research and treatment and to help other people.

Which brings me to my point.

This past April, I ran the Boston Marathon for Swim Across America.

Swim Across America also raises money for cancer research and treatment.

My fundraising commitment to Swim Across America was $5000.

I agreed to run the marathon and raise money on the tail end of organizing a Go Fund Me Campaign for Patty, and raising over $5000 for her in addition to almost completely furnishing her home. That all happened because of readers of the blog.

And since that was such a big undertaking, I backed off the fundraising before the Boston Marathon.

Which brings me to my point.

Like I just said, I believe one of my purposes with this blog is to raise money, for people in need and for cancer research.

I didn’t feel that way initially. It was never a goal of mine. It was never even a thought of mine.

But now it is.

And I still need to raise about $3500 to fulfill my commitment.

So I’m doing two things.

One, I’m asking for donations. If everyone who reads this post donated one dollar, I would make my goal.

Here is the link to my fundraising page. Click on it.

It’s not too late to donate.

All proceeds go the the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. That place saved the life of a college teammate on the swim team and thousands of other lives.

I think I can make my goal through that link alone with enough support right here.

But just in case I don’t, there is that second thing.

I’m directing a 5K race here in Brookfield, CT on Sunday, September 13, 2105.

It’s called the 5K for Christopher. 

That was my brother’s name. And that is another way I will honor him and know that his death was not for nothing.

Something good will come out of it.

All proceeds from the race this year will go to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

Mark your calendars.

If you are too far away to make the race and are about to leave a comment saying something like, I would totally run in it if I weren’t so far away… well, you are in luck.

Click on this link to my fundraising page and donate the $25 it would cost to enter the race to my fundraising page instead.

I want to make this happen.

Secretly, I have another goal.

I want to raise over $10,000.

$5000 through my fundraising page and another $5000 through the 5K.

I know I can do it.

I’m going to do it.

But I could definitely use your help.

I’m running out of time before my fundraising deadline.

But other people are just plain old running out of time to live.

Please click here to donate.

I know what it’s like to go through the nightmare of cancer.

It fucking blows.

I couldn’t help my brother.

But we can all help someone else.

Thank you for making me Number 1!

Please keep voting!

Click on the banner below and you have registered your vote for me!