13.1 miles for a cure

13.1 miles for a cure

On January 17th, 2010 I'll be running the Houston Half-Marathon as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team In Training in memory of my grandmother, Margaret Spathelf.

In March 2009 my grandmother was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), sometimes referred to as preleukemia. It's a disorder of the bone marrow stem cells that disrupts the creation of new blood cells. At her age, 86, there was no real treatment for the disease other than blood transfusions to make up for a lack of blood cell production. Three weeks later, as happens all too often, a respiratory infection that would normally have been only a bad cold grew into severe pneumonia due to her weakened immune system. She passed away on April 9th and has been greatly missed.

Incidence of MDS is closely associated with age and will only become more common as time goes on. There are some treatments with stem cells that are showing promise but precious little is known about the causes. Last September LLS funded a major five year research study with $6.25 million specifically to look into the root causes of MDS in order to develop new and more effective treatments. I'm running in memory of my grandmother and others like her in hope that, through the money I raise, new treatments can be found to fight MDS and all other forms of leukemia and lymphoma. Money donated goes to fund studies and perform research, which would not otherwise be possible, to find the causes, develop treatments and someday find a cure.

Thank you in advance to all who donate and support this worthy cause!