Running for my Life!

Hi. Thanks for visiting my Team in Training (TNT) webpage. If we haven't met, my name is Dave Eckberg and I have chronic lymphocytic leukemia. This is an incurable, usually lethal form of leukemia. I'm happy to tell you that I've had it for about eight years now. That may be a strange thing to say, but I'm happy to say it because many folks unlucky enough to have this disease aren't living eight years after finding out they have it. My father had this very same disease in the late 1970s and he died in five years.

I've been fortunate to have had very aggressive, experimental therapy three times now. In fact, in 2008 I completed a six month course of experimental chemotherapy directed by the doctors at the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. I was only the seventh person to receive this therapy. We don't yet know whether it worked as we hoped, really, because whether it has worked or not will be measured in whether or not my doctors can find residual disease in my bone marrow when I have another bone marrow biopsy in a few weeks, or by how long I live until the disease returns, if they can't find it now. However, I've been in remission for about eighteen months since I finished the chemotherapy and that's as long as I've ever been in remission since I first got sick in 2002.

[UPDATE: March 2, 2010-- Unfortunately my doctors have found that my disease is returning yet again. Blood tests done during my most recent visit to M. D. Anderson show low levels of leukemia where there were none just a few months ago.]

But even if my doctors cannot find the disease right now, there still is no cure and it will in all likelihood come back again within months to a few years, and again and again thereafter. There also are no preventative treatments. Medical research is very expensive and so are the various treatments. That's why we need your help.

I've been with Team In Training for over three years as part of the Honored Hero program (as they call folks like me who have leukemia or lymphomas, though I actually go by the moniker "Mascot Dave"), but recently I've been able to take a more active part in the team's activities. Since recovering from my last rounds of chemotherapy in July 2008, I've started walking farther and farther and actually was able to do my first fundraising half marathon with TNT last May, when I did the North Trails Half Marathon in Dallas with my teammates. For some reason I ended up doing it in a skirt , which kinda explains the picture you see on this web page.

Then I signed up for another fundraiser half marathon in Denver in October of last year and then yet another one in Dallas, the White Rock Half Marathon which was held in the middle of December 2009. As if that weren't enough, I have now signed up to do still another fundraising half marathon, this one to be held in San Diego in June of this year.

Since TNT raises money to fund research I have a very personal interest in this program. I'd love for our researchers to find a cure for my disease in my lifetime. I'm doing what I can to help fund this research for so many folks like me. Please help me and my teammates by donating what you can to our cause. NO AMOUNT IS TOO SMALL. (Note that our seven-year-old granddaughter, Brooke, donated $1.00 of her own money, which is probably 10% of her net worth! ) I personally appreciate what you're doing for folks suffering from leukemia and other blood cancers when you donate to our program.

Leukemia can strike anyone at anytime. Here is a short list of folks who have died of leukemia, folks that you probably have heard of.

Bill Walsh, former San Francisco 49ers Head Coach

Steve Walsh, his son, a reporter for ABC News

Ed Bradley, reporter on 60 Minutes

Tom Snyder, TV talk show host

Tom Landry, Head coach of the Cowboys for many years

Craig Thomas, Senator from Wyoming

Susan Butcher, winner of the Iditarod Dogsled Race

Curt Gowdy, sports announcer

Susan Sontag, author

Alan Shepard, astronaut

Colonel Sanders, of KFC fame

Raisa Gorbachev, wife of Soviet era premier

Marie Curie, scientist

Mary Travers, musician, of "Peter, Paul and Mary"

Orville Eckberg, my father

In addition, just recently I found that the father of our neighbor across the street had the disease, and then another neighbor three doors up the street came down with it as well.

The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society supports 400 researchers worldwide who are doing lifesaving cancer research. They have contributed to major advances in the treatment of blood cancers and many other types of cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and stem cell transplants that have prolonged and enhanced the lives of patients like me. New targeted therapies that kill cancer cells without harming normal tissue have already begun to provide drugs and procedures that are improving quality of life. We're hoping that a cure can be found sooner rather than later, for so many folks like me. That's why I'm raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

But more research is critically needed:

* Every five minutes someone is diagnosed with blood cancer. Every 10 minutes, someone dies.

* Leukemia causes more deaths among children than any other cancer.

* Nearly 20,000 Americans died from lymphoma in 2007.

* The survival rate for myeloma is just 34 percent.

Please make a donation to support my participation with Team In Training and help save lives. Be sure to check my Web site frequently to see my progress, and thanks for your support!

Very sincerely,

Dave

PS: Even though my disease is returning, I will continue to train for this event and try to raise the money I have pledged to raise. Thanks for your help.