RAN: Remembering Adam Alexander Nickel

Remembering Adam Nickel

Hello,

As many of you know Adam Alexander Nickel passed away suddenly Sunday March 2nd, 2008, shortly after finishing the Little Rock Marathon, in Little Rock, Arkansas. Adam was set to finish his 3rd year of pharmacy school at UW-Madison School of Pharmacy Program and looked forward to attending clerkships in the Madison, Fox Valley, and Anchorage, Alaska areas before pursuing a promising career in clinical pharmacy. Anyone who knew Adam knew he always put his best effort into everything undertaken, be it academic, athletic, or otherwise. Throughout his 27 years with us, Adam was always active, getting into trouble with his brothers, running track and cross-country, wrestling or his most recent passion running marathons. He found his release from hours of study, and mediating occasional friends and family squabbles by running. He ran his heart out to many top finishes at marathons ranging from the Fox Cities Marathon, Las Vegas, and even a finish at the Boston Marathon finishing ahead of Lance Armstrong, all without the help of any pace runners or special accommodations! His latest marathon cut his time short as he had so much left to accomplish in his days ahead. He had just met and exceeded his goal to raise money for a charity marathon in San Diego, which he was running in honor of his grandmother as part of The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training.

Adam loved training to run marathons and was excited to take his running to the next level, “charity running”. The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society uses the Team in Training program to raise funds. Adam raised $3800.00 just before he passed away and we would love to continue raising funds! Over 75% of the funds raised will be used to directly support various patient programs such as patient education, family support groups, and matching newly diagnosed patients with survivors.

The mission of LLS: cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's Disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families.

Adam chose to run with this program to honor his grandma, Laurine Schmidt, who died of lymphoma in 2002. Please help make Adam’s last passion and mission to honor his grandma a reality by continuing to donate.

I (Sarah Ann Balzar) will be running in Adam and his grandma’s honor this upcoming October in the Chicago Marathon (although I will not be finishing sub-3 hours!). All support is truly appreciated and will be used to help patients and honor Adam.

THANK YOU!!!!

P.S. Check back if you are interested to see how training goes! Hopefully I will figure out how to input run updates like Adam did.