Walking in this HEAT

This past Saturday, I awoke at 4:30 to get up and walk with my team. We are all training together for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training.

I would not get up at dark-thirty for many people.

But when I was six, my friend Jett was diagnosed with leukemia. He was also six and lived across the street with his two sisters and brother. He was in my first grade class. He died a few months after his diagnosis. There was very little treatment in 1962. If he had been diagnosed today, as a six year old he would have close to 90% survival rate or better.

My cousin Eddie was diagnosed with lymphoma when we were young adults. He went through lots of treatments, lost his hair, got sick, but survived!! He is now a productive member of society whose job it is to make sure our country is secure in the National Guard.

My friends Amy and Wes had a daughter Kirsten, who was diagnosed with leukemia when she was 4. She was very, very ill. She endured surgeries, chemotherapies, and a bone marrow transplant, and did not survive. She and Jett are friends now.

This is my friend Charlie. He was diagnosed with leukemia when he was 9. He was in my husband's cabin at Camp Sanguinity, the camp for kids diagnosed with cancer and their siblings held every summer here in TX. When he was 19, he relapsed. I got to know him again. He was a fine young man who recently died at age 20. I miss you Charlie.

I am walking for them and many more. I think of you when that alarm goes off at 4:30 and my feet are tired and my hips hurt...shoot everything from the waist down hurts by 10 miles.

But it's nothing compared to chemotherapy, surgeries and a bone marrow transplant.