Racing to Save Lives

Welcome to my Team In Training home page!

As some of you may know, my father, Roy, battled T-cell Lymphoma a few years ago. Cancer isn't something new to my family; many of my grandparents had some form of it, I have aunts and uncles who have been sick with, and my father lost one of his sisters to breast cancer before I was born. Even knowing all that, I never expected it to hit so close to home, and I certainly wasn't prepared for cancer to affect one of my parents. During the process of chemo and radiation, he lost his beautiful long hair, as well as his sense of taste, which for a handsome man who loved to eat, was definitely not fair. He handled being ill with as much aplomb as he could muster, even when he sick and tired of treatments and was ready to kill us if we made him drink one more protein shake. About a year after he had finished treatments and was declared cancer-free, he passed away in his sleep. We aren't really sure what happened, and while the odds are good that the cancer itself didn't cause his death, it did leave his immune system weakened, and he was never quite himself again.

My dad wasn't just handsome; he was also funny, and seriously intelligent. He spent 27 years in the Navy, and took sea duty more often than he had to in order for my family to stay put in one town. The son of an Air Force man, he knew what constant travel and frequent moves did to families and kids, and wanted my mother, sister and me to be able to have the kind of home life he didn't have. After the Navy, he went back to college (at the same time I did!) and majored in Cultural Anthropolgy. He was Native American, Lakota Sioux, and he wanted to learn more about his people, as well as be able tell their story from their point of view; not just as another outsider. The day he retired from the Navy he stopped cutting hair, and along with his interest in anthropology and linguistics, he taught himself traditional Lakota beadwork. It was during this time that we were in school together that I really got to know him. Going to college with your father sounds like a hokey premise for a movie, but I'm lucky enough that I got to live it. He drove me crazy sometimes (no one enjoys running into their Pop after skipping class, honest) but I'm thankful we had that time together. It was nice to have someone studying the same thing I was, so we could dork out about the same ridiculous things together. Pop knew who Fraz Boaz was and liked to talk shop with me, as it were. Being at school with him also showed me how other people responded to him. I don't think I ever appreciated how funny he was, or how charming he could be, until I saw him in his element. Students and teachers alike honestly liked him, and sought out his opninions and ideas. You know that moment you have when you realize your parents are actual, honest-to-goodness people? I had four years of that.

This year, at the one year anniversary of his death, I decided to train to participate in an endurance event as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team In Training. If you know me at all, you know running isn't my thing (not even for a ringing telephone!), so you can see how important this is to me. All of us on Team In Training are raising funds to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma from taking more lives. I am completing this event in honor of my Pop, as well as all individuals who are battling blood cancers, including my favorite Uncle, John H. Gartner, who was recently diagnosed with MDS. His diagnosis wasn't quite accurate, and a few weeks after it he fell ill with what turned out to be an aggressive tumor on this liver. A year and a month after my father's death, I lost the man who knew him best, who had been my Uncle, and was reminded again how important it is to support cancer research. I'm doing this because I'm sad my niece won't get to know her Pop-Pop better, because my stepkids and fiancée didn't get a chance to get to know him at all, and because I'm angry to be in my early 30s and down one parent. I'm doing this not just in his honor, but my family's as well: losing my Pop and Uncle has been one of the hardest things we've ever had to go through, but we're getting through it, day by day. With that in mind, I'm feeling confident that I can walk a half-marathon (at least!), one step at a time.

Please make a donation to support my participation in Team In Training and help advance LLS's mission.

I hope you will visit my web site often. You can also follow my progress over at my blog, also called Amanda's Walk for Pop. Be sure to check back frequently to see my progress. Thanks for your support!