Sunday, December 11, 2011 - 11:15 p.m.

Elisabeth and I have just returned home from Kiawah Island, South Carolina. I finished the marathon along with nine other North Carolina Team in Training members. Another 55 finished the half-marathon. So, we accomplished the second part of our mission.

Thanks to our coaches, who got us ready and encouraged us along the way. To my wife, Elisabeth, and Dave's wife, Melissa, who rode the course on bicycles to help us keep going the distance. To our mentors, who encouraged us with fundraising. To the staff of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) who planned the campaign, the weekend, and then saw it through. And to our generous donors of money, of prizes, and of encouragement to keep going. You are all wonderful!

We had previously accomplished our first task--that of raising some $180,000 to help LLS continue its mission to alleviate the scourge of fighting blood cancers. In this country, almost a million people are living with these killer diseases, some in remission, some still waiting for the discovery of medications or procedures to help them live a normal life.

The LLS mission, however, continues as long as children, dads, moms, kith and kin face these diseases and as long as researchers need grant money to continue searching for cures for lymphomas, myelomas, Hodgkins disease, and more common and rare cancers.

You, too, can become an even bigger part of the solution while doing something special for yourself. Even if you have been a couch potato for years, Team in Training can help most people become long distance endurance athletes in just four months. I did my first marathon at age 63, thanks to TNT! Bike, hike, walk, swim and/or run with a supportive team of your peers while raising money for LLS. I loved it; I feel sure you will too. To find out more, go to http://www.teamintraining.org/ and from there select your state, territory or province and hook up with your local Team in Training.

Try it on for size next season!

John

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2011 IS THE BIG DAY!

The North Carolina Triad Team In Training Kiawah Island marathon group has finished training. Now we run a little, eat properly, and stay well for the big day you made possible.

The supporting members of Team Elisabeth and the donors to other NC Triad team members have together raised over $35,000 for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's efforts locally and nationally to find ways to defeat deadly blood cancers. Give yourseves a shout. You rock!

Elisabeth and I leave Friday for Kiawah Island. We will join other Team In Training athletes from across the country at a pasta dinner Friday night, then rise early for the event's 8:00 a.m. start. The weather looks great so far; the long range forecast calls for an overnight low in the mid forties, rising during the day to around 60. Chance of rain, 10 percent.

Knowing that you are supporting me will help me get started. But even better, it will urge me on for those last hours after the half-marathoners finish, the route gets more lonely, and fatigue starts to kick in.

I'll let you know how it went after the big event. Have a great weekend and keep going the distance with me.

Thanks,

John

GOAL REACHED, THANKS TO YOU!

Thanks everyone for generous donations to The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. We met the goal of raising the approximate retail cost of a one month prescription to the lifesaving drug, Gleevec, which puts into remission 85% of the chronic myelogenenouis leukemia patients who take it daily for the rest of their lives.

You help with research in to blood cancers, assistance to patients and families locally and across the country, and to public and provider education. Perhaps the next drug will give the other 15% of CML patients a way to survive this dread disease. People like you helped fund the development of Gleevec through your contributions.

Happy Thanksgiving. And check back AFTER December 10 for a report on the North Carolina Triad Team in Training's group in the Kiawah Marathon weekend events.

John

See PS for Motsinger

Tree Farm Information.

My HOME RUN 10K results

Saturday, November 19. Skies clear. 24 degrees cold in Winston-Salem at 6:00 a.m. By 9:00 a.m. race time, the mercury had nosed above freezing at the Home Run 10K at BB&T Ballpark. It was perfect running weather for me, just 3 weeks before the start of the Kiawah Marathon. Sixty minutes and a few seconds later, I crossed the finish line after the 6.2 mile event about 2/3 of the way back in the pack.

BUT, my run was fast enough to earn me second place in the males 62 to 98 years old age group.

Next Stop: Kiawah

My next event will be on Saturday, December 10th for the 26.2 mile Kiawah Island Marathon in South Carolina. Thanks to all my supporters whose lifesaving donations to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society have made my participation possible and are helping LLS provide services to patients with leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma and other blood cancers and to their families!

Your donation comes back home

While your donation may go initially to an upstate New York based organization, your donation also comes back home. It came home for my wife, Elisabeth Motsinger, in the form of Gleevec, the drug developed with funding by LLS that saved her life and those of 85% of the chronic myelogenous leukemia patients who can now survive by taking a daily dose.

Last week, members of the Triad Team In Training met with dietitian Julie Lanford for a nutrition clinic. Julie works cancer patients through Cancer Services in Winston-Salem. LLS helps fund Julie’s work as a cancer dietitian with patients who have leukemia and other blood cancers, as well as other cancer patients. She teaches people how to use diet and nutrition savvy to prevent cancers, to fight cancers as an adjunct to other therapies, and to help deal with side effects of chemotherapy and other treatments.

And, she has wonderful recipes we all can enjoy. Check out Julie’s web site - CancerDietitian.com - for tasty, healthy recipes and menus and a lot more information about nutrition and your health. Like how to avoid gaining weight over the holidays in her November 17 entry. Julie points out that “NOT GAINING is like losing it in the first 3 months of 2012.... only easier!” and decries that Congress last week declared pizza a vegetable for school lunches!

No more free drafting of documents

Thanks to those who took me up on the offer to draft legal documents for you in exchange for a donation to LLS. You helped boost the fundraising to over 99% of its goal. Alas, the offer expired on Friday, November 8. Thanks to all whose generosity has helped raise $3248.80 (including checks in transit to LLS) out of the $3250 goal. Just $1.20 to go!

The fundraising account will close on November 28, so those of you who are still planning to make a year-end tax deductible contribution may do so. In any event, 98% is a great showing and more than enough to allow me to run as a North Carolina Team In Training member.

I plan to make my next (and last) post about Team In Training after the race.

But, I plan to share with you important and exciting news of a much different kind sometime shortly after Thanksgiving weekend. Check back in here, or on my blog entitled Going the Distance, or on my Facebook page sometime Tuesday, November 29 or shortly thereafter and be the first in your crowd to know the news.

Until then, have a great delicious, nutrition, and auspicious Thanksgiving.

John

PS - Don’t forget to visit my brother Alfred’s Christmas Tree Farm in Roaring Gap to choose your own tree in the fields where I grew up. Enjoy a walk in the mountains, hot cider, and a chance to get Christmas present made by local artists, while you choose your special tree! Click here to see more.

LIMITED TIME OFFER. If you donate to LLS by November 18th, I’ll prepare your Durable Power of Attorney, Health Care Power of Attorney, and Living Will.

Do you need a power of attorney? A health care power of attorney? A living will? If so, then help me finish raising $3250 to fight leukemia, lymphoma, and Hodgkins’ disease by November 18.* I will give you in return a legal consultation and the documents you need!

Since I am less than $500 from meeting the goal, (with my heartfelt thanks to many of you), the offer is limited to the first 5 people who meet its terms.

What do these documents do? Why do I need them?

If you get sick or get injured and cannot communicate, who will take care of your business, pay bills, file insurance, etc.? Who will deal with your physicians? Who will make medical decisions for you? Who will know your treatment wishes and concerns? If you do not decide and put in writing those matters before an emergency arises, many of those decisions may be made by a person designated by the state and may not be consistent with your wishes or your values.

What does my contribution do?

Make (or update) those crucial legal and medical documents now, while you can; you will at the same time help The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society continue its programs of research into medicines to cure or control blood cancers, of service to patients and their families, and of education to medical providers and the public.

If you haven’t contributed, now’s the time to do it. If you have, simply up yours.

Just make a contribution to LLS of $131** (or up your previous donation to bring it to $131) through this Team Elisabeth fundraising page, then I will give you:

• an in-person or telephone consultation regarding advance medical directives and powers of attorney;
• a Health Care Power of Attorney;
• a Living Will;
• a Durable Power of Attorney; and
• instructions on how to file these documents with the appropriate government agencies.

How to take advantage of this offer.

Limited to five offers total. Reserve your documents by calling me at 336-830-4729 or emailing me at john.motsinger@gmail.com. Then pay securely online by November 18, 2011, to meet LLS Team In Training donation deadlines. Then schedule appointments for services by June 30, 2012. If paying by mail, make your check payable to “LLS” and send it by November 16th to:

Team Elisabeth

ATTN: John K. Motsinger, Sr., JD

6548 Woodmere Drive

Walkertown, NC 27051

The Fine Print.

The person(s) actually receiving the services must live in North Carolina. The forms are those set forth in the North Carolina General Statutes, tailored to your wishes as discussed in our consultation. The bare text of the documents is available in the North Carolina General Statutes and from some other sources without charge. You can fill those in free for yourself. Only a North Carolina licensed attorney, however, may give you legal advice regarding the provisions of the documents (including several provisions that facilitate tax and estate planning even after you are incapacitated). By law, only licensed attorneys may prepare them for you or for others.

Please feel free to call or email me with your questions.

John K. Motsinger, Sr., MSFS, JD

N.C. State Bar No. 11034

(336) 830-4729

john.motsinger@gmail.com

* I'm running a marathon (26.2 miles) on December 10, 2011 on Kiawah Island to raise money for LLS in honor of my wife, Elisabeth, who has chronic myelogenous leukemia, currently in remission thanks to drug research funded by LLS from funds raised from people just like you and me.

** or $262 for two individuals. Up to four individuals at $131 each count as one offer for the purposes of the 5 offer limit.