This Mother's Day, please support me in the fight against breast cancer.

Dear Friends and Family,

This year on Mother’s Day I am making a donation to the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure in honor and celebration of my mother and grandmother. As many of you know, I am walking in my third 3-Day this November. I participate in this amazing event each year because I know that together, we are making a difference in the fight against breast cancer. Which is why I am again, asking for your help and support.

It has been eight years ago this May since my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, much like her mother thirty years before. Although her treatment of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation challenged her body like nothing she had experienced before, her spirit to survive shined brilliantly. It is women like my mother, and the other millions of breast cancer survivors across the world, that inspire me to do everything in my power to help fight this disease.

As a part of my dedication to this cause, I was recently appointed to the Board of Directors for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Central Valley Affiliate, an honor which allows me to work alongside some amazing volunteers and survivors, all dedicated to finding a cure for breast cancer. These men and women, who volunteer and work for Komen, inspire me to continue dedicating myself to the Komen mission.

Since its inception in 2003, the Komen 3-Day for the Cure has raised nearly $600 million to fund breast cancer research and vital community breast health programs across the United States. Each year, as a walker I commit to raising a minimum of $2,300 and walking 60 miles over the course of three days. Despite the challenges of fundraising, the blistered feet, and legs that feel as though they cannot possibly take another step, I cannot imagine a year without this event in my life until we find a cure. I do all of this because I know first hand the incredible impact supporters like you have made over the years in breast cancer research and treatment. 1.4 million women are diagnosed with breast cancer globally each year. With the advances in science and medicine many of these women, like my mother, have access to state of the art healthcare, and receive personalized treatment options to save their lives.

Please support me with a donation to the Komen 3-Day for the Cure in honor of the mothers and women in your life who inspire you.

Thank you for supporting a cause that is so important to me and my family. Without you, none of this would be possible.

Take a walk with me to help eradicate breast cancer.

Love,

Lyndsey

Training Tuesday - When in doubt, just charge up that hill, 3-Day style

This weekend we did another big hike up at Yosemite. With the warmer weather much of the snow had melted in the lower elevations so we were able to cover ground fairly quickly - perhaps too quickly. Charging up the hill, with that "get it done" 3-Day mentality that you have by your third day of walking, quickly proved too fast a pace for an elevation gain of 1,000+ feet! Regardless, after a quick break for a photo of me sporting my Susan G. Komen gear, we learned to pace ourselves and made it to the snow covered portion of our trail. Finally got to use our shoe spike things (what are these called? I'm told they are not the same thing as cramp-ons.) And we got to follow fellow hikers straight up a snowy mountain when the trail was no longer visible. Quite the adventure! And a great training day for the 3-Day and for our goal of hiking Half Dome later this year.

Wordless Wednesday - Supporters come in all sizes

Jackson sporting a fashionable Susan G. Komen bandana in support of the 3-Day.

P.S. After a couple wordless weeks full of moving to a new city, I am finally back to blogging!

Training Tuesday at the San Diego Zoo

Tomorrow I will do my last training walk at the San Diego Zoo, which makes me realize how much I am going to miss that place. Walking around the zoo in the morning, watching the animals get fed, and realizing that I'm fortunate enough (at least for two more weeks) to live in a city where I can do training walks at a world class zoo, all make training for the 3-Day a bit easier.

While looking ahead to tomorrow's walk with one of my favorite walking buddies I'm tasked with the need to find new training walk locations in my future city. So I throw the question out to fellow 3-Day walkers, how did you come to find your favorite training walk places? What are some of your favorite training walk locations and some best practices that help pass the time on those long walks?

Wordless Wednesday - A symbol of why we walk

One of my favorite moments of the 3-Day closing ceremony - survivors walking the final mile.

Motivational Monday - Highlights of the 2010 3-Day

As many of you know 2010 ended in a very busy and at times rather dramatic fashion, (cough, Matt's Thanksgiving day appendectomy, cough) but now that things have calmed down I am finally sitting down to write and reflect on the highlights of the 2010 3-Day.

The first thing that needs to be mentioned is the pouring rain that sunny San Diego experienced throughout the 3-Day. The rain definitely presented a new challenge for walkers but in the end both Julie and I agreed that it made the experience that much more special. Honestly it brought tears to your eyes to see the line of pink walkers with their shoes wrapped in anything waterproof they could find. Such dedication. I'm honored to have been a part of this!

Another highlight was Matt surprising us on my birthday (day 2) by meeting us at lunch, wearing a kilt, lots of pink, with his face painted (pink of course). After we ate lunch in his truck to escape the pouring rain, he walked the last 6 miles of the day with us. Julie and I realized that we got A LOT more attention walking with a man in a kilt. Good news is that we think we have him convinced to participate in future years. :-)

Day 3 was my favorite day by far. Although we experienced more rain, this time Julie and I were prepared after having wrapped our shoes in saran wrap and duck tape. We also decided to hustle throughout the day, push past lunch and meet Matt and my mom and dad at the finish line to share some Basic Pizza and beer before closing ceremony. Best idea ever. And best tasting pizza ever!

As always the people who support the San Diego 3-Day made the experience. It's amazing to me how many people in our community spend three days of their lives outside (this year in the pouring rain) cheering on walkers. Smile Guy and lil Grin, Hookers for Hooters, the dancing hula girls, ALL of them truly make the walk so much easier. As we completed the final mile to closing ceremony, and you walk past all the supporters, I think it would be impossible to not start crying. That's the moment when I realized that I cannot consider walking in another city if it means I would miss out on the support in this wonderful 3-Day city.

So next year I will celebrate my 30th birthday at closing ceremonies. Who wants to walk with me? Julie and I have already signed up and formed our Breast Coast Walkers team. Join us!

P.S. to see more pictures of our 3-Day experience check out my album on Facebook

Motivational Monday - One person really can make a difference

Once again I'm a day late with my post for Motivational Monday but honestly it coincides perfectly with the fact that today Nancy Brinker's (founder of Susan G. Komen for the Cure) book Promise Me hits bookstore shelves.

Most of you reading this blog know that Nancy G. Brinker promised her dying sister, Susan G. Komen that she would do something to help the fight against breast cancer. What I think is so motivational about the story of Nancy and Susan is that one woman was able to make such an enormous impact. In 2009 Nancy was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama, who remarked "Nancy lay awake at night wondering if one person can really make a difference. Nancy's life is the answer."

This is why so many of us walk in the 3-Day each year - we know that we truly can make a difference.

I want to close with some words from the book where Nancy remembers how she first realized the power of fundraising and change. "It was my earliest inking of what goes into the chemistry of change: moment meets messenger, information becomes action. Hearts and minds shift to a new paradigm, money happens, and it all comes together." Look at how far her movement has come. I'm proud to be a part of this organization.

The publisher allows you to post a link to an excerpt from the first chapter of Promise Me. Be sure to check out the link if you're interested in reading this story.

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Motivational Monday

The holiday weekend threw off my posting schedule so to make up for it, I wanted to share this article from the Susan G. Komen site entitled "Living with metastatic breast cancer." I've recently heard so many stories of women being diagnosed with advanced, stage IV breast cancer or metastatic breast cancer and this article really buoyed my spirits about these diagnosis. Hope it helps cheer you as well! Please share with the women in your lives.

Breast Cancer is Survivable

One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime. This is a fact. Recently it seems like once a week I learn about someone else in my life affected by breast cancer. My 3 Day teammate recently had someone close to her diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer, one of my donors and family members had a close friend diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer, and now, one of my closest friends and former 3 Day walker found out her aunt was diagnosed this week with breast cancer. One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime. This is a fact.

It is also a fact that you can survive breast cancer. Thousands of women do just that. Seven years ago my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, just like her mother before her. With the help of science and medicine, family and friends, faith and love, my mother just celebrated her 60th birthday. She is a breast cancer survivor.

It’s interesting growing up with a family history of breast cancer. From an early age I’ve known that I am considered high risk. If I have the breast cancer gene, which my mother’s doctors would like to test for, then I have an 88% chance of getting breast cancer in my life. I won’t lie and say that this statistic doesn’t scare me. But after seven years of staying connected to the breast cancer community, I know that if I am ever diagnosed, I will benefit from science and medicine, family and friends, faith and love, just like my mother did.

Breast cancer is survivable. That is a fact.

Training Tuesday - Or Trying to remember when my last walk was...

In order to be a better blogger I am trying to create a schedule for my 3 Day blog. This is still a work in progress, but I’ve committed to writing a “Training Tuesday” post each week. Today is Tuesday so despite the fact that I didn’t do ANY training last week, you still deserve an update.

I started training a couple weeks ago for the 2010 3 Day. So far I have done a handful of walks that average between five to seven miles. Other than last week when I was sick, these walks have felt really good and well paced. I’ve done the Torrey Pines hill a couple of times already and do a lot of my other training at the San Diego zoo, which has some great hills.

All in all, I feel great about the 3 Day, however I do struggle with finding time to do my training walks. While trying to manage working full time, taking marketing classes for my job, working on my history masters thesis, and trying to stay on top of my normal work out routine, it is really hard to find time to do long training walks. Every time I decide to do a training walk it means there is something else that I should be, but won’t be doing. Any advice out there from all of you super busy, yet well-organized people?

A glimpse of 2009...

Danna, me and Julie after finishing 40+ miles! What a great feeling it was to know that we only had one day left to walk. I couldn't have done it without the support of both of them! I can't wait to do it all over again with Julie!

Why we walk - From Susan G. Komen

• Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer and is the leading cause of death among women worldwide.
• More than 1.3 million women are diagnosed with breast cancer globally each year.
• More than 465,000 die from the disease each year.
• A woman dies from breast cancer every 68 seconds.
• Incidence rates are increasing five percent annually in low-resource countries.
• Susan G. Komen for the Cure partners or funds programs in 50 countries to end suffering from breast cancer.
• Komen Founder and CEO Nancy G. Brinker, a Goodwill Ambassador for Cancer Control for the U.N.'s World Health Organization, is urging global health officials to include cancer in global health agendas.

Why I walk...

Dear Friends and Family,

Currently breast cancer is the leading cause of death among women worldwide. While this is a sad reality, the situation is improving daily, in part due to organizations such as Susan G. Komen. Since its inception, the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure has raised nearly $500 million to help pay for vital global breast cancer research and local community programs supporting education, screening and treatment. This year, as I celebrate my 29th birthday, I will walk for the second time, pledging to raise $2,300 and walk a total of 60 miles to help eradicate breast cancer.

Most of you know my inspiration for participating in this amazing event. It’s been over seven years since my mother was diagnosed with and survived breast cancer. It’s an interesting thing when your parent becomes sick and you assume a more parental role in life. I drove her to six months of chemotherapy treatments that left her sick and weak. I cut her hair short when it started to fall out. I safety proofed our home for someone with a weakened immune system. Through all of this I watched as my mother proved time and again that she was the strong one in our family, demonstrating courage, determination and a sense of grace with each new situation. I was there to help care for her during the tough times, but I was also there to see her strength and to be inspired by her survival. I witnessed firsthand, all that medicine and science can do to ensure that a cancer diagnosis is not fatal, and that a daughter still has her mother.

Every year medicine and science make incredible strides in the fight against breast cancer. When my Mother was diagnosed with cancer it had been thirty years since her mother, my grandmother was diagnosed with the same disease. In the seventies a breast cancer diagnosis almost certainly meant a full mastectomy. In the twenty-first century cancer is caught early, treated quickly with less evasive surgeries and followed up with a personally devised combination of chemotherapy, radiation, and other medicines. Today for women diagnosed with breast cancer early, the five-year survival rate is 98%, making it one of the most survivable cancers. Despite this great progress in the time if takes you to read this letter another woman will receive a breast cancer diagnosis, and in the next 90 minutes 34 women will be told they have breast cancer. Together we can continue this progress so that one day NO women will ever be told they have breast cancer.

The progress that we have made towards eradicating breast cancer would not have been possible without the generous help of millions of people just like you. After working in development and fundraising, I know firsthand just how much impact we can all have on the world when we each give what we can. It is with this knowledge that I am not only raising funds as a walker in the 2010 3- Day for the Cure, but also continuing my annual donation to my local Susan G. Komen office and donating to my own 3-Day fund to help me reach my goal. I know that my donation, when joined with thousands of others in San Diego is truly making an impact in the fight against breast cancer.

Please help me reach my goal by following the link to my personal donation website. As I prepare to walk 60 miles to demonstrate how important it is to me that we find a cure for breast cancer, I need your help.

Take a walk with me to help eradicate breast cancer.

Many thanks and much love,

Lyndsey

Welcome to my 3-Day blog!

I am really excited to start this blog to share with my friends, family, and the 3-Day community, my experience as a 3-Day walker. I will be posting photos and sharing stories from the 2009 San Diego walk, as well as updating everyone on my progress with fundraising and training for the 2010 walk so please check back for updates!

I’m going to post in a separate blog my fundraising letter, but also wanted to share with everyone how you can donate. If you go to www.the3day.org you can search for my name by clicking on the “Donate” tab and then “Search for participant.”

Thank you everyone for your love and support!