I’ve been meaning to do this post but today I got some news that made this post necessary. This morning I learned that a friend from the Tour de Pink lost his partner to breast cancer. In addition to my friend, she leaves behind a young daughter. Another good friend lost his wife to breast cancer last year. She left behind a husband, a daughter, and a son. These were young women. The woman lost today was diagnosed initially before she was 35 years old. She helped to found and was a past president of the Young Survival Coalition.
Through working on the Tour de Pink I’ve met a lot of breast cancer survivors. Almost all of them were diagnosed before the age of 40. One of our riders is 28 and has already been through two diagnoses. They ride the Tour de Pink to help raise awareness of the fact that young women get breast cancer. Far too many of them have heard, “You’re too young to have breast cancer.”
I’ve planned to use my racing this year to raise funds for charity. I had kicked around various charities in my head. The news I got this morning has helped me to decide. I’ll do my races this year to raise funds for the Young Survival Coalition. I’m saddened and angry that another young woman has been lost to this disease. I’m sad for another family who will not have a wife and mother around to share life with them. But I won’t let this sadness get the best of me. I’ll train and compete with the women lost and the women saved on my mind. When I’m suffering I’ll remember that I’m not going through chemotherapy, I’m not going through multiple surgeries, and I have a healthy wife at home.
I’ll paraphrase Eric Harr, Find a cause that makes your blood boil and commit to it. I don’t care what that cause is. Find something that inspires you, pisses you off, makes you cry, makes you happy. It doesn’t matter. Find that cause and go do something for them today. Run a 5k – if you’ve never run a 5k before make it a goal and collect some donations along the way. It may seem like running a 3 mile race isn’t much but use it as a platform for good. You can collect money for your charity in lots of ways. There are numerous online resources you can use to raise funds. Try Active Giving and First Giving.
I’ll do another post soon on the Tour de Pink, the Young Survival Coalition, and some of the fantastic people I’ve met through working with this great organization. I’ll be setting up a donation tool so that you can donate directly from this site. Do me a favor – find your cause today and figure out how to raise funds for that cause. Thanks!