Cancer: A family sickness

For those of you that have not participated with Team In Training (TNT), before our Saturday runs, which we call our GTS’ or ‘Group Training Sessions,’  we always have a “Mission Moment,” which is usually done by one of the participants. They normally explain what attracted them to TNT and why they are running to cure cancer.  This week, one of my teammates on our Williamson County Team took the spotlight.

Florian, an exchange student from Germany, happened to end up living with a ‘host’ family in the Nashville area, whose daughter is a Leukemia survivor, and his exchange father is also participating with TNT this season.  Florian liked the idea of running to cure cancer, and indeed he had his own connection with Leukemia.

Florian started his Mission Moment, by letting us know that his younger brother Enrico was diagnosed with Leukemia at two years old.  Florian’s poignant observation was “When a child becomes sick with cancer, the entire family becomes sick.”  Florian walked us through his brother’s fight with Leukemia, bringing it into remission, only to have other cancers occur. Ultimately cancer took his brother’s life at just 6 years old.  Poor Florian was only 8 at the time, and you could see in his face, the pain and impact this had on his life.  We had perhaps 40 runners and all were on the verge of tears.

Unfortunately, many of our stories end like this, your percentage chance of surviving Leukemia or Lymphoma are climbing, but your chance is still well south of 80%.  We need to get this number to 100% for all of the Enrico’s of the world!

My sincerest thanks to Florian for making my mission even clearer.  We need to raise as much money as possible to beat this horrible decease!  Please click the donate button up on top, and even if all you afford is $1, at least others will know that you are helping!

Thank you.