In 2008, my life changed forever when my husband Derek was diagnosed with a rare form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. After a long, tough battle enduring brain surgery and several months of intense chemotherapy he prevailed! This past May we returned to MD Anderson Cancer Center for Derek’s latest check-ups. We were overjoyed to learn that he is still cancer free! In celebration of this news Derek made a vow to help others afflicted with blood cancers triumph by completing his first marathon. So together, Derek and I are training with Team In Training for the 2010 ING New York City Marathon with the goal of raising $12,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

During Derek's treatment our social worker connected us with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society who assisted us through the hardest time in our lives. The 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.

Today we'd like to do as much as we can to help other families that face the struggles of fighting cancer. To us the New York City 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 still have through the continued support from such great organizations like LLS and TNT.

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 could 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 viisiting his page:

http://pages.teamintraining.org/vtnt/nyc10/derektrainer

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

(Nike Women's Marathon 2009)

(Out on a long Saturday run with the team!)