Date: 2008-05-09 06:46 Subject: (no subject) Security: Public

Happy early Mother’s Day, everyone!

Way back a long time ago, I posted that I was going to participate in a 3 day breast cancer walk in Seattle.

I joked about the pun-iness of our team name: THE RACK PACK, I pondered why I was so excited to wear the word “BREAST” on my shirt and I mulled over the fact that I was going to be walking 60 miles with my sister, my sister-in-law, AND one of my best friends and iPods were not allowed. GAH!

One of the LJ’ers who responded to the entry was: lkmadigan, she of the recent two-book deal with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, AKA, author of the YA novel FLASH BURNOUT.





In Lisa’s reply, she thanked me for participating in the 3DAY and then she told me her story. When she was 27 and married only two years…she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Here’s the tale in her words: http://lkmadigan.livejournal.com/20578.html

After reading her original post, I immediately asked if I could walk the 60 miles in her honor. She said she would be “honored.”

That was five or six months ago. In the meantime, I’ve been training: hiking mountains, doing yoga and participating in a 10K training run with some of the other RACK PACKERS.



The Rack Pack with our SAVING SECOND BASE t-shirts. (We spent a great deal
of time discussing the varying height of each others (soft)balls.) :)

In a couple days, we will all celebrate Mother’s Day.

Lisa will too. See that little eyeball in the above picture? That’s her ten year-old son. When I asked Lisa for a photo of her to put up by my training schedule—THAT’S the picture she sent—except I got to see the whole thing, and I guarantee you, her son’s smile is a big and wonderful as Lisa’s. My response was “The fact that breast cancer could have taken away those two smiling faces is what will spur me on and stay with me forever.”

And indeed it has and indeed it will.

I’m walking in honor of Lisa. I’m walking in honor of anyone who has ever had breast cancer or anyone who is going to get breast cancer. I’m walking in memory of those who did not survive the battle.

I’ve pledged to raise $2200 and thanks to the Class of 2K8 (and Lisa herself) I’ve got a good start, but I thought Mother’s Day week(end) might be a good time to ask the LJ community if they’d like to jump on the bandwagon and support me also.
If you ARE interested, (and I DO appreciate your help) here’s the link to my 3DAY web page: http://08.the3day.org/goto/ninanelson.

If you’d rather write a check and mail it in, there’s a link at the bottom for a printable donation form.

Oh and btw: Some companies match donations made by their employees and that sure makes the pink thermometer on my site fill up a lot quicker!

Sorry for the long post, but as writers yourselves, I’m sure you know that I couldn’t just send out a donation “form letter”. There’s always a story. :)

Enjoy your weekend everyone, enjoy your Mother’s Day, enjoy your life.