Wow! My run is almost here.. Thank you all for your support and words of encouragement. I can run up to 10 miles now!! This has been such a great experience, I've met some amazing women. Women who have worked so hard for our team. These amazing women, my teammates Mary Jane Kelley, Kate Cordell, Monica Moreno, Marjorie Telly and Cynthia Braxton have run along side me, when we could, and have worked tirelessly to raise funds for our team to support the Leukemia Lymphoma Society.. Also thank you to all their husbands who lugged ice chests, stages, dunk tanks, worked as 21 dealers, craps dealers, bartenders, and everything else you can imagine. They have insprired me so much, they devote their precious time between raising their children, working full time, and many other commitments for the chance to help save other mothers children, fathers, brothers, mothers, and daughter's lives. I'm lucky to have had them on this journey, I couldn't have done it without them. A special thank you to my husband Phil and my children, who were there working at every fundraiser, working side by side with me, they really came through for our team.. Thank you to the Plumas Lake community, what a great big neighborhood, and I've enjoyed being a part of it these last few months. Last, but definetly not least, my friend Debbie Mallen. She ran with me before I started training, through my training, and will be running with me after my training. She wakes up at 5am and drives to my house to run with me, who does that?? She's the best!! Thank you my good friend Debbie..

Thank you friends that have already had a chance to donate, it means so much to me. If you hadn't had a chance to donate it's not too late, the last day will be Friday, September 18th.. This is such a wonderful organization to be part of. If you would like to find out more about them here's their website:

http://ww.lls.org

Sincerely,

Christie Villa

(530) 301-5015

LLS Tax ID# 13-5644916

Below is a bio of our family trying to find a match for Daniel:

I'm the oldest child of six siblings and my brother Daniel is the youngest. When he was first diagnosed with Leukemia in 2003 our lives stopped. At the time we were preparing to move to Northern California, I took our house off the market, . All 5 of us siblings were immediately tested to see if our marrow would match and none of us matched Daniel, although some of us matched each other. We then organized a bone marrow drive to find a match. The turnout was incredible, the representative from the hospital asked me what other events were happening in that location and I said everyone was there for our bone marrow drive and she was amazed. She said it was probably one of the biggest turnouts she had ever seen. To this day it touches me that so many friends and our spouse's families came out to support us. Some friends came back early from vacation, friends came that we hadn't seen in years, and others brought friends, thinking of it today brings tears to my eyes and we could never thank everyone enough. We didn't have any family besides each other that lived in the area, so to see this whole building full was beyond words. If you were there that day as you are here again today, thank you again.

Unfortunately, we didn't have a match that day, but soon after they did find a young woman from the bone marrow registry that was a match. Although my brother decided not to do the bone marrow transplant, for a few reasons. The biggest reason is that the mortality rate for non-related bone marrow transplants is 50%. The most successful transplants are between siblings that have the same mother and father, although we do we still didn't match. Today my brother is happy and enjoying life as a single dad rasing his 9 year old son also named Daniel. He spends a lot of time with friends and loves playing cards, playing sports including soccer and hockey, to our chagrin. I'm encouraging non-contact sports like running, he said maybe... He doesn't feel his best, and at times it's very painful, but with medication today he is coping and just wants a good quality of life versus quantity. He's also a great brother and a better uncle... My kids love him so much.... So do I...

Thanks for reading.

Christie

Although my brother at this time isn't doing the unrelated bone marrow transplant for himself, I encourage everyone to register for the bone marrow registry, for those who may decide to do an unrelated bone marrow transplant.

http://www.marrow.org/index.html