Last Saturday I was #27. I wore that pack, filled to the brim with water and gear and snacks and more snacks and I hiked 20.7 miles through the most beautiful landscape I have ever seen.
It was wonderful and painful and humbling. And that's to say nothing about my body's physical reaction to the monotonous foot pounding over rocks and through creeks. The joy and the pain were in the sharing of my time with moms and dads who have been (and continue to go) through a difficult and uncertain time that I cannot begin to imagine. I can't do justice to parents like Christy and Matt and Candi and Chris and Nikki and Jeff who raised money and strapped on their boots to help fund a cure, not only for their own kids, but for the 40+ kids who are diagnosed with cancer each and every day. Think about that- around 2 classrooms full of kids every.single.day.
And those 40-something kids get treatments that are designed for adults because there simply isn't enough money to fund research for treatments designed specifically for kids. I know, I know, blah, blah, numbers, money, research, blah, blah, blah. But, consider the likelihood that one of the kids receiving that diagnosis will be yours or the child of a friend or relative. And consider how angry you'd feel if it were a child you love.
Now take that anger and do something! All I ask is that you click the link and donate a few dollars to CureSearch. Every little bit helps! And if you really want to get involved, register for an Ultimate Hike! It will literally change your life- and I mean literally as in it actually will, not in some sort of hyperbolic misuse of the word! (You don't even have to dump a bucket of ice on your head!)
So HERE'S the link. Do it now, while it's on your mind. It only takes a few minutes.
I promise a more humorous account of the hike will come to my blog soon, but there's work to be done and money to be raised before that happens!
