Hello, friends and family!!   I'm glad to be reaching out again this year for such an important cause.  We have had a few changes that I would like to update you about:

First, I was unable to participate last year due to a sports injury I sustained ... training for this event!!  Fortunately, I have recovered and am looking forward to this years stride.

Second, this year I have a much, much more important reason to stride.

Late last year I lost a friend to very aggressive pancreatic adenocarcinoma.  Lynn Martin is my daughter and law's aunt.  We had gotten to know each other over the last decade and she was one of the most fun people I have ever known.  Lynn did not know how to do anything halfway.  You hear about people being "a force of nature"; but I never knew what that meant until I met her.  She was fearless and determined to beat this when she was diagnosed last spring.  Sadly, the cancer had other ideas and even though they initially caught it early it spread much more rapidly than any of us could imagine.  

She left behind a husband, two daughters and their children.  They are all devastated.  

All the fundraising in the world can't bring Lynn back, but it does give her family a chance to "do something" after the pain and helplessness of watching her lose her fight.  

It's hard for me to put to words how it felt to watch Lynn go through it.  I can't wrap my head around why I got to survive and she didn't.  It is both sobering and terrifying - in the last five years the cancer has seemed more and more distant to me but watching her fight and then succumb made it very, very real again.

Please consider making a donation towards this very important cause.  Each bit of generosity when gathered together with others can move the needle toward a possible cure.  

Thank you all again for your past support and generosity.

-Shelli