Motivational Monday

According to my 3-Day participant site, there are 47 days until the San Diego 3-Day. As it gets down to crunch time, where I realize that I need to up my fundraising efforts and really commit to my training walks, I am constantly looking for new ways to stay motivated.

I've shared a lot about how inspiring I have found Nancy G. Brinker's book Promise Me to be. Part of what inspires me to be involved in the movement to fight breast cancer is the history of the disease and the fact that we have come so far in such a short amount of time. When my grandmother was diagnosed in the 1070s survival rates were not as high. Today the five-year survival rate of women diagnosed with breast cancer is 89%. For those diagnosed early, before the cancer spreads, it is as high as 98% for five or more years.

The ever-improving rates of survival inspire me to get involved, stay involved, and do everything that I can help find a cure for cancer so that the women in my family and in my life will not go through what my grandmother and mother experienced.

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.

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!