Thanks to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

Derek was able to go from here:

Recovering after surgury and receiving chemotherapy at MD Anderson

To Here:

Crossing the finish line at the 2010 New York City Marathon!

Today we'd like to continue to do as much as we can to help other families that face the struggles of fighting cancer. This June we are running The Mayor’s Midnight Marathon in Anchorage, Alaska alongside our team of other cancer survivors and fighters in support our mission to find the cure! To us the Mayor's Marathon isn’t just a race, it's a celebration of life. The life he still has, the life we still have together, and the lives others can have through the continued support of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

In 2008, our lives changed forever when Derek was diagnosed with a rare form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. A large tumor was discovered stretching through his brain, sinuses, ocular cavity and face. I have never been so scared in all my life. Thankfully, our prayers were answered. After a long tough battle enduring brain surgery and several months of intense chemotherapy, Derek prevailed!

During Derek's treatment our social worker connected us with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society who assisted us through the hardest time in our lives. LLS is the world's largest voluntary health organization dedicated to funding blood cancer research and providing education and patient services. Their mission is to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma, and to improve the quality of life for patients and their families. LLS helped us tremendously in our fight by sending us financial support for travel, parking and other expenses. Most importantly, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society helped save Derek’s life by developing Rituxan.

Through LLS support, Rituxan was developed by Ron Levy, M.D. and his colleagues for patients with B-cell lymphomas. LLS funded many investigators who determined how to use Rituxan most effectively for lymphoma patients and patients with other B-cell cancers. Rituxan can help patients with follicular, diffuse large B-cell, and also CNS, lymphoblastic, mantle cell, Burkitt NHL and Hodgkin lymphoma. Before, not even one-third of NHL patients survived 5 years. Now, with Rituxan and other new drugs, 5-year survival is over 60%. Rituxan + CHOP provided the first survival improvement in 25 years!

Not only did Rituxan help save Derek’s life, but it is also treatment my Grandmother is receiving for another form of blood cancer, Waldenström macroglobulinemia. They are both living proof of how worthy this cause is. I will probably never fully know the many positive contributions LLS made to our lives, but I am forever grateful.

Please make a donation to support our participation in Team In Training and help advance LLS's mission. Their research saved Derek's life. Your donation will help find a cure.

I hope you will visit my web site often. You can get a double-dose of Trainer and hear more about Derek's story by visiting his page:

http://pages.teamintraining.org/sctx/anchor11/dtraine46x

Be sure to check back frequently to see our progress and please share our links with others. Thank you so much for your support!

• • 2/18/11 Dang, it's cold!

Not even 26 degrees and a wind chill of below freezing keeps us from our goal to wipe out cancer! Here we are with our Marathon Director and friend, Colin at track practice during that crazy cold weather!

• • 2/19/11 Mission Workout

Today the marathon, cycle and triathalon teams gathered to run the silent Mission Mile to honor those that we lost and those still in the fight.