Kick Off Meeting

We had our Team in Training kick off meeting this week in Harrisburg. During the meeting, we took the opportunity to meet our Capital area mentors (Cary, Chris and Trevor), coaching staff (Tom and Kui), and fellow team members. We also received our fundraising packets and picked out our official purple event jersey. 

My favorite part of the night was finding out who our honored teammates would be during this journey. These local blood cancer patients and survivors, cheer the participants along from training to completion. My teammate is Brian Bucher.

Luckily, Brian was at the kick off meeting and was able to share with us his uplifting and emotional story.  In 2005, he was diagnosed with Primary Mediastinal Large B Cell Non-Hodgin's Lymphoma. When the doctors at Hershey Medical Center discovered the tumor next to his heart, it was the size of a grapefruit. Seven years and countless chemotherapy treatments later, it's roughly the size of a grape. 

Support and research efforts, made possible by the LLS, allowed Brian to share his story. I hope to tell more of his story in a future post (if he'll let me).

Our honored teammates will be our greatest inspiration and motivation. We must always be thinking of their battles on the front-line.