Honoring our loved ones

HONORING EMMA, Bridget, Mo and Mom forever - Who are you honoring?

I am so blessed!  I am healthy and forging onward.  I wish I could say the same for the four warriors who have shaped my life in ways unimaginable. Emma Journeay, Maurine Turcotte, Bridget Spence and my awesome MOM.  I could write for hours and hours about each of these incredible warriors.  All taken way too early to cancer.  NO words will ever do justice to what each of them experienced and how they each lived through it with courage and taught those around them to live.  For these three, and for my mom, who taught me courage, giving back,  a positive attitude and a belief beyond what we see, are critical to living a happy life and helping those around us who may not be. I am also honoring my friend Peter Devereaux.  See his blog .  Peter is living with metastatic breast cancer.  His story and the cause of his cancer is alarming.  He recently had a setback and I think of him every day.   

Take a moment to think of people in your life past and present and what they have taught you.  Honor them.  Take a moment to comment here on the blog and write about the people you honor.  It is healing and gives us all a way for them to live on.  

An Update on The Tough Warrior Princesses:

On August 17th and 18th, some of our Tough Warrior Princesses participated in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life event.  My favorite part of the event was the remembrance tent that we set up.  Anyone at the event could come to our tent and hang a name or a message for a loved one lost or battling cancer.  We were also taking requests by Facebook.  It was such an honor to be able to write down other's loved ones names and take a moment to honor them.  Listening to all of the names of people lost to cancer being announced at the relay was somber.   I heard so many names of past friends, acquaintances and loved ones.  It was humbling and scary to think how many are lost to this dreaded disease.  

Hopefully, by being at this event, people in the community are more aware of the resources we provide to those fighting.  Thank you to all who supported us and to Cheryl Woodsom, who organized everything.  

Last month, we had 15 princesses take part in the Komen 3-Day / 60 Mile event.  I did not walk this year, as I wanted my fundraising efforts to focus on Tough Warrior Princess non-profit and our local mission.  The team this year had heavy hearts, but they turned that into love and joy.  They walked for so many - but especially Maurine, Emma and Bridget.   They took what they learned from Maurine and treasured and enjoyed every moment of the journey. It was inspiring to watch them.  The young team members Alexa and Dylan were just awesome to watch, each raising over $2,300 for the cause.   Then we had Maddie, Mia and Tyler serving on the Youth Corp. team.  What an absolute inspiration these young kids are.  I got to stand on the sidelines these three days with a great group of cheerleaders for our team.  We followed them everywhere with our "In Memory of Mo" signs.  So many women and men came up to us and told us stories of Maurine and how they had met her on previous walks.  We even had a team member this year from western MA.  Melissa - she joined our team because she had the honor of walking a few miles with Maurine last year and was forever impacted.  When she joined our team, she didn't realize that Mo had passed. She thought she would walk beside her - in spirit, she did.   I got to cheer beside Maurine's husband, Jim. He honored every single walker as the came in to camp and wouldn't leave until the last walker arrived in.  He so sincerely thanked each person for walking and was overwhelmed with Maurine memories and stories from the participants.  I can't imagine the range of emotions that Tyler and Dylan went through these three days.  They certainly know how one person can have a HUGE impact.  They learned from the very best.  

On June 27th, the Tough Warrior Princess organization had the great opportunity to help the Commonwealth Newburyport Cancer Center with their annual Cancer Survivor Celebration.  This event is a beautiful night for cancer survivors and their all-important caregivers.  It was held at the Newburyport Firehouse Theatre.  Interlocks was there offering 'Look Your Best' makeup sessions and a great spread of food was done by 17 State Street Cafe. Survivors had the opportunity to describe what Hope meant to them and the stories were read on stage.  Denise Desimone, a stage 4 cancer survivor and a talented speaker and musician inspired us with her words and astounded us with her beautiful voice, despite the fact that her cancer was throat and neck. She is proof that sometimes what seems impossible can be overcome.  Alexa also had the opportunity to perform her dance solo at the event.  She danced to "I'm Gonna Love You Through It" by Martina McBride.  It is quite an emotional display and it is a dedication to Maurine Turcotte.  Many, many thanks for the Commonwealth Newburyport Cancer Center for funding such an event and including us in it.  

We have a great opportunity with a contest that Anna Jacques Hospital is involved with in the upcoming opening of the Gerrish Breast Care Center.   They are participating in the 2013 Medline Pink Glove Dance competition.  This is a national music video competition where hospitals compete for a chance to win a $25,000 towards the charity of their choice.  AJH has selected The Tough Warrior Princesses to be the recipient of that $25,000 award in the event that they win!!  We are now looking for anyone that wants to represent us in the video's grand finale scene.  It will be a large crowd that will participate in a 30-second dance sequence. Please join us outside at the Main Entrance of the Hospital, wearing a TWP or pink t-shirt and jeans - at 5:30 p.m. on September 12th.  (Rain Date September 16th).  No dance experience required, just enthusiasm.  No RSVP is needed.  

What's next?  We continue to get referrals to those newly diagnosed.  Our survivor baskets are in demand and we are working on ways to fund more in the future.  We are looking for businesses to get involved to donate goods and services to those newly diagnosed.  Our Outreach committee is working on creating a wider list of resources and contacts for survivors.  

There are many of us that are participating in the Dana-Farber Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund walk on September 8th.  We do this to raise funds to honor Emma Journeay and support research on neuroblastoma, a childhood cancer of the nerve tissues.  Follow this link and join our team!  Make sure you join the team 'Every Step for Emma.'  

Our belief is that we can create an army of volunteers who simply stand ready to help when possible.  Please be sure you are on our newsletter and email list.  If you haven't already liked the Tough Warrior Princess page on FB, please do.  By having everyone interested connected, one post or email stating that we need help to give a ride, prepare a meal, etc. can be met easily.  

Lastly, consider playing in the Roberta Mellon Memorial golf tournament.  This year is our 3rd Annual at the Amesbury Golf and Country Club.  This tournament was founded to raise funds for Juvenile Diabetes and funds go to Katie Mellon's walk for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. The tournament also raises a portion of the proceeds for the Amesbury High School golf team.  The event is to be held on Friday, October 11th this year. Please contact me for more information.  

Blessings,
Patty

Change is Hard

“Some changes look negative on the surface but you will soon realize that space is being created in your life for something new to emerge.” 
― Eckhart Tolle

Change is Hard

After 3 years of walking in the Komen 3Day, I am hanging up my sneakers.  At least for this year.  It is such a tough, emotional decision.  I have met the MOST INSPIRING and AWESOME group of people participating in the 3 Day.  It is, without doubt, part of who I am.  It  is painful to make the decision not to walk.  However, I am feeling overwhelmed and need to make some choices.

Without doubt, the Susan G. Komen organization has helped in developing drugs and trials that have helped me personally and are literally keeping friends of mine alive through their funding of research.  I feel my efforts in fundraising over the last 3 years have contributed a lot and I am proud.  I will continue to support Komen and volunteer for them in any way I can.  I will be at the 3 Day, whether Crewing for them or cheering for the walkers.  Nothing will keep me away.  The thought of not walking with my team TWP, this year, is heartbreaking.   I so enjoy the walk and the good it brings out in everyone.  But I know in my heart I am focused on the right things for me right now.  

YOU, my friends, my family and business friends have supported me like no other support system and I don't want to wear out my welcome. Thank you all who have supported me financially or in words and encouragement.  I am truly blessed and so thankful!!  

 I now feel the need to focus on a couple of things that are near and dear to my heart - They are the Tough Warrior Princess organization and Juvenile Diabetes Research.

Tough Warrior Princess - This year our Non Profit has helped so many local women and families suffering with cancer.  Small ways and big ways.  I feel so proud of what we have accomplished and need to focus efforts to keep us growing.  It is difficult when it is an all volunteer effort.  So much needs to be done and so little time to accomplish.  I love seeing exactly where the money we have raised goes and how it impacts each person.  We have such a great base of volunteers and supporters and we need to work keep it all together and improve.  I want to focus on that and not be sidetracked.  There are good things ahead for this group and I'm excited to be a part of it.  I feel the need to send out our message, that TWP is not a breast cancer walking group and it is not about only breast cancer - we support women in our local community with any type of cancer.  Cancer sucks and those who have to endure the journey deserve some love and support and TWP is all about showing support.

Juvenile Diabetes Research  -  I can't even begin to tell you how Juvenile Diabetes Sucks!!  It is a life long condition and there is no cure.  Juvenile Diabetes or Type 1, unlike Type 2 Diabetes, is an autoimmune disease caused when the immune system mistakenly attacks the pancreas and kills off the cells that produce insulin.  It is not known what causes this to happen.  Insulin is a hormone that enables the body to get energy from food.  Type 1 diabetics need insulin continuously to live.  Type 1 diabetics are constantly monitoring blood sugars to do what their body can no longer do.  If your blood sugar is too high, you can develop ketoacidosis- a life threatening condition.  If you are too low, no sugar is getting to your brain for you to function.  A life threatening condition that can happen very quickly.   Watching my daughter, Katie manage and live with this is hard and stressful.  Long term outcomes are scary.  Short term common illnesses are scary, because they interfere with blood sugars.  I feel like there is a cure within reach and need to make sure I do all I can to be a part of fundraising to support the research and new technologies that are being developed to make a diabetic's life easier.   Money we raise goes to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, which is a charity that is doing amazing work and has improved the life of diabetes immensely through their research.   

Lastly, on September 8th I will be walking 26.2 miles in the Jimmy Fund walk in Boston to show support for my friend and inspiration, Tina, who lost her 9 year old daughter, Emma, to neuroblastoma.  I think of Emma every day and so many children who have had to endure cancer.  We need to find a way to a world without cancer.

Stress causes your body's immune system to be weakened.  After cancer, I promised myself to not be the stressed out, crazy person I used to be.  This year I have felt myself slipping back into old habits and this is my way of taking steps to be sure I stay healthy.

Thank you all for your love and support.

Blessings,
Patty 

“Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.” 
― Wayne W. Dyer

An October Update....

In my last blog post(a long time ago), I talked about the inspiration and beauty of the 3 Day walk and what it's like to be surrounded by people all fighting for the same cause. Magical.

A few weeks ago me and 3 other Tough Warrior Princesses, Cheryl, Sherri and Jody all traveled to Washington D.C. to volunteer to work the 3-Day walk there. We volunteered for traffic control. We flew into D.C. early Thursday morning in order to be there the day before the walk started so that we could attend "crew" meetings that instructed us what we would be responsible for over the coming 3 days. Our Traffic Control duties seemed like they shouldn't be too difficult and we were hoping to get the opportunity to cheer on walkers. Well.... our duties as traffic control were a bit harder than imagined. To say that we were soaked, muddy, tired beyond anything I have experienced would be an understatement.

The weekend was wrought with emotion as Jody experienced a loss in her family while we were away. Our teammate Maurine was facing new treatment for her advancing breast cancer that Monday, and our thoughts never went far from another teammate and her beautiful young daughter, who are experiencing some extremely tough times.

Arriving home, I don't think I have ever been so happy. Seeing Mike standing in the terminal waiting as we arrived from our flight was the highlight of my weekend for sure!

It was a long weekend spent for a cause so near and dear to my heart. I was challenged physically and emotionally. The three women I shared the experience with were my rocks. I'm honored to have done this with them. I'm very glad to have had the experience. Thank you and congratulations to all the D.C. walkers! $7 Million raised!!! I will tell you it is much easier, in my opinion, to walk 60 miles then Crew the event. I think I'd even walk 120 Miles!

The next day, I had the opportunity to take Maurine (fellow Tough Warrior Princess) into Dana Farber to start a Phase I trial treatment. Maurine has been in trial treatment before, but not Phase I. We arrived at 7:45 in the morning and stayed until 8:15 that evening. To say that Maurine is a guinea pig would be an understatement. We spent the day on the research floor - Maurine had tests run in the a.m. and then, once cleared had her first treatment of this new trial. After each weekly treatment that Maurine will now receive, she then has to spend 8 hours in the research lab having heart and blood tests. She is one of 16 women in the entire world enrolled to this trial. It was an eye opening experience... scary, exciting and interesting. Side effects? Drug interactions? Well some are known, but lots aren't. She is the research! Despite what the circumstances were, Maurine and I had a great day. (at least I think she had a great day - I know I did - but I wasn't the guinea pig.) We laughed a lot, because if you know Maurine, she can make any circumstance comical. It wasn't all laughter, as we talked a lot about life and how unfair it can be. But if you put your situation in perspective, it usually isn't all that bad. Maurine bounced around the Dana Farber building entertaining her chemo nurses from the prior trial and even entertaining her oncologist. She opined about her thoughts on the cure. Of course, she always has a new idea brewing!!

In honor of breast cancer awareness month, I must say this. In watching Maurine deal with the side effects of the trial, about getting bad news of another friend with late stage metastatic breast cancer, in remembering it is the month I lost my young mother to breast cancer 17 years ago on her 25th Wedding anniversary...

It seems to me that we often make a breast cancer diagnosis look easy. Look at the images on TV, all the talk of survivors, all the pretty pink.... I know that I have always been vocal about the bright side of my experience and always say in some strange way it has changed me for the better. It has and I am grateful and I live differently now. But, going through it was Hell for me and my family and friends. There is nothing uplifting or pretty about it, as with any and all cancers. It is not a feel good experience. Yes, there are better treatments than their were 17 years ago when I lost my mom... but there is NO CURE. That is what needs to be focused on not just in October and not just breast cancer.

Having got that off my chest....

We have also spent our time recently in the Mellon family raising funds for Juvenile Diabetes for the walk that Katie and her 'Krew' did in Boston on October 2nd. The following weekend we continued our fundrasisisng efforts as we hosted the Roberta Mellon Memorial Tournment at the Amesbury Golf & Country Club. The tournament was a great success and we are blessed with some great friends and family. Looks like about $4,000 was raised after expenses. Most of the money will go to Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and a portion will also go to the Amesbury High School Golf team. It was great to have some members of the golf team present and playing in the tournament. The local business community of support was fantastic!

Our Tough Warrior Princess Team training continues for the upcoming October 30th Komen 5k Race for the Cure. 9 weeks ago, we started a Couch to 5k running program and the turnout was amazing. We have runners and walkers at all levels and since we are training at the track, we can all run our different paces while motivating one another to continue. We will continue training and will be running as Team Tough Warrior Princess on October 30th in Boston. If you are interested in running, sign up and become a Princess. The more the merrier!

The Princesses got together this past weekend for a night out. I was so nice connecting with some that I don't get to see as often as I would like. It seems that everyone on this team somehow plays off one another and each person is a better person as a result. Going into the 2011 walk, I was worried that a team of 32 people really couldn't share the close bonds like a team of 10 did -- How wrong I was!

It's time to Walk the Walk!

The 3-Day is next weekend!! I have trained well and am so ready. Can't wait to share this time with 30 others on our team that have made such a huge commitment. It is very impressive! All have met their minimums and are ready to go. Committing to raise $2,300 and walk 60 miles is not as easy as it may sound. The hours of training and the fundraising work is no small feat. Once again, Kudos to each and every one of you on the Tough Warrior Princess team. My sole sisters! We had a goal at the beginning of our fundraising of $100,000. We are so close to the goal!!!! Thank you to everyone for the amazing support!!! I am just amazed at the dedication!

Want to attend an event that will most certainly motivate and move you?! Come cheer us on at our private TWP cheering station at McCue the Florist parking lot on Saturday July 23 from 10am–2:15pm. It is located at 200 Cambridge Street, Woburn on the corner of Rte 3 and Lexington St next to the 99 Restaurant. Or consider coming to closing ceremonies on Sunday. The closing of this event is beautiful and we would love to see all of our friends and family there. The ceremonies are held at UMASS Boston in Dorchester. More details to follow as they become available.


I mostly can't wait to share this time with my daughter, Alexa. Alexa is part of the walk again this year, as she once again has the opportunity to be part of the Komen Youth Corp. She has raised $1,500 and will spend the 3 days working the event. Working the event is harder than walking the event. These kids are up before the walkers and work not just during the walk but before and after. They do so many different chores and also do a lot of cheering and kind things for the walkers. Alexa is perfect at the cheering part. My favorite part of the day is when I get to see her at a rest station or cheering station. Her smile and constant enthusiasm just melt me. I am so happy she partakes in this event with me. The best part of the entire 3 Day for me is when each of the Youth Corp kids get up on stage and talk about why they are there - it is extremely moving. This should be Alexa's last year of participating in the Youth Corp, as next year she will be 16 and will be old enough to be a walker.

I have been given the honor of carrying the My Daughter flag into the opening and closing ceremonies this year!! How proudly will I carry that flag?!! Because Alexa will be working the event, she won't get to walk with me as I carry the flag, but Katie will!! This is so significant for me, as I know my mother would be proud of us, her daughter and granddaughters for what we are doing. I will be so happy to have Katie by my side. Katie, who is the very example of strength and determination and facing a tough situation with grace. Katie just "celebrated" her 3 year anniversary of being diagnosed with Juvenile Diabetes. And yes, we did celebrate because Katie is well and is able to do everything she wants to! I never want my daughters to have to face a breast cancer diagnosis like me and my mom had to. Every step with that flag stands for the determination that I have to keep going until there is a cure.

My brother, Bob, is also walking the event this year and that too means so much to me. He is such a trooper. Being on a team and training with 30 women as the sole Prince can't be easy. We are all pretty strong, opinionated women and he has to put up with a lot. The work he has done for us is over the top. He handles all of our technical fundraising needs, just check out our website for a sample of his work. The fact that he is walking in this event to honor his mother and his sister is just awesome. There aren't many men on the route and I am so glad he will be one of them!

And lastly, but certainly not least. MY DAD!!! My dad is my biggest fan. Many of you reading this know that - because you have to listen to him gush about me - but I love that he is so proud. My dad goes nowhere without my business cards and the Video flyers. Heck, he was sick in the hospital passing them out to every nurse and doctor or person that would listen. He is also the biggest fan (well, next to Sherri's husband and family - the Ziomeks) along the route. For the entire 3 days that I walked my dad showed up at every cheering station and was there the entire way. My dad is 80 years young and the heat last year was so extreme - but that certainly didn't stop him. Last year he also had custom designed silver necklaces made for each team member with the princess logo engraved. Having lost a wife to breast cancer and then watching your daughter go through it all cannot be an easy thing. Thanks for always being there for me dad!! I love you!





Blessings!

Patty

2 Years - Cancer Free! Celebrating Life!

It's amazing what can change in two years. Two years ago today, February 9th, I was in major surgery and facing the fight of my life. Knowing that once I was healed from the surgery, the chemo and a year of Herceptin treatments would begin. All that and Katie had also just been diagnosed with Juvenile diabetes. What a scary feeling and completely dark days those were. However, whenever we go through any tough times in our lives, that's when we first find inner strength and whatever we are lacking in inner strength and wisdom --- well, that's where our friends and family pick up the slack.

After this experience, I do believe that in our darkest times, we truly begin to learn how blessed we really are. You start to think of all the things you took for granted before and vow never, ever to take anything for granted again. One day everything is fine, yet you are stressed about some meaningless things and the next day you wish you could just go back to the absolute perfection of yesterday. It is a complete change of perspective in a major way.

I have read a couple of things lately that have made me sad, but also reflective. It's about the happy face survivors put on and the flowery world within which some live, when instead of spreading such a message, the reality is that cancer sucks. The articles basically said it is all a world of pretend and survivors needing to escape reality. I first took offense to that and then I started to think about why so many survivors do seem to be truly happier and feel more blessed than they were before. There is certainly truth to the fact that as survivors, we do need to escape reality. We can't live our lives looking at statistics and thinking about what might happen. But in my experience, I am truly happier and realize my blessings more than I ever did before. I have stopped worrying about a lot of the meaningless stuff I used to worry about, I thank God for my life each and every day, I feel much more connected to my friends and family and am much more willing to reach out of my circle and help someone else. I feel others pain and struggles so much more deeply now. I am much more open to live and experience life and take risks and challenges that I would not have taken before.

After feeling the love of my friends and family that truly have held my hand, washed my hair, watched me lose my hair, counseled, consoled, put up with rages and tears and just been there every step of the way, I will never, ever be the same. How can one not feel blessed? How can one not be ready to give back? Flowery? maybe.... but I feel like the moment I forget this experience or let it dull in my mind, that I could go back to being insensitive, stresssed and simply not aware and lacking the Hope that I now have.

I am two years cancer free and one year out of treatments!!! How can I not be filled with happiness and be forever grateful. I'm here. And since I am here - well, I am going to make a difference. Sunshine? Sure!!! Bring it on!!!



TEAM Update: Tough Warrior Princesses now have 24 team members ready to raise $2,300 each and walk 3 Days and 60 Miles. We had a team meeting the other night and what a great group of strong, motivated women. Planning is underway for a number of fundraisers, including our dance and silent auction that will hopefully be held May 14th. (We just need to confirm a venue) I was blessed enough to be able to volunteer at a Komen Get Started Meeting in Beverly and what a great experience. Many of the new Princesses came to this meeting and they were just awesome. I am truly surrounded by a team of women that are strong, faithful, loving, kind and READY to KICK SOME CANCER BUTT!!!



No one should have to go through what me and my family have been through. No one should have to go through what so many of my friends and acquaintances fighting this disease are going through. The realilty is that this disease, whether breast, prostate, lung, ovarian, pancreatic on and on and on is dreadful. It takes lives and ruins lives. We all need to take a stand and try to stop it.


Be MORE and Count your Blessings!!

Define yourself through Stregth and Perseverance - not your difficulties!

We drove to N. Oxford, MA last night to drop Katie off at the Clara Barton diabetes camp, which has become an annual event for us. This is her 3rd year going there on a fall weekend they call, Wacky Weekend. This is a camp for children with Juvenille Diabetes to get together and relax, play, learn more about their disease and also to learn that they are not the only ones suffering from it. I think that remembering that you are not the only child is the best part of camp - a camp where having an insulin pump is almost required and where everyone needs to test their blood sugars every few hours. Where they can take a time out for a low or high blood sugar and not feel isolated, as each camper there knows what those things feel like and you aren't considered to be interrupting the activity at hand.

I know this weekend each year has helped me a lot. As it also reminds me that we aren't isolated in what we deal with as a family. A weekend, where as a mother, I get a break from diabetes..... and if you don't deal with it --- I can assure you that it is a 24/7 battle. A weekend off, I must admit, although I worry about her, it feels like a mini vacation.

Then I realize she doesn't get that vacation.... ever. It is 24/7. It makes me so sad.

That being said - we are grateful. Juvenile diabetes is manageable. Yes, there are long term complications, but we manage daily and Katie is HEALTHY! There are much worse things than that. I look to Katie as an example. She is the definition of strength and resiliency. She has never let her struggles impact her - her grades at school never slipped and if your blood sugar is high, it is impossible to concentrate or take a test. But somehow she does. She wears her pump and doesn't hide it - she is who she is. She never looks for an exception or a break. She has never backed off physical activities that can make the blood sugar go low. She just ran her first 5k and is currently playing on a travel basketball team. Watching Katie train for the 5k was the most inspiring thing I have ever witnessed. Now... I am not saying that she didn't complain, because she did --- BUT who doesn't complain when they are running?! I know I do constantly. As Katie trained almost every single training run involved a low or an asthma attack or both. Yet she would treat, wait and then GO! I know a lot of runs, I think most of us would have used that as an excuse to not complete the distance planned. Katie completed every training run!

Katie is the example of not letting a struggle define you and it has certainly made her a much stronger person. I think she will be a better person for having this disease and I think we should all look to not let our struggles define us and learn how to rise above. I guess that old saying what doesn't kill you makes you STRONGER!!!

Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they've got a second. ~William James

Blessings!
Patty

Staying Strong and looking Ahead... and holding on to Memories....

As most of you know, our family is going through a difficult time with the passing of Mike's mom, Roberta Mellon on September 15th. Thank you to everyone for the love and support. Cancer SUCKS! That is all I can say. We love you and will miss you, Bobbie.

Since my last post...

Went for my first follow up checkup with my oncologist at Dana Farber since ending treatment earlier this year. It was strange being back as someone just being followed, but not being treated. Scary thoughts tried to come up, but I reassured and rationalized with myself. I am healthy and cancer free. There is no evidence to the contrary.

I looked around at all of the other women young and old that were in the midst of it all. You could tell the ones that were there for initial consults by the paperwork they were filling out and the one's going for scans and the ones there to meet with their oncologist and go for treatment. I looked around at the support systems they brought... - the husbands, the friends, the family - each dealing with it in their own way. So many people go through that center in one day - just on the breast cancer floor -- it is unbelievable.

I sat there looking out the window of the 9th floor of the building with all of these thoughts running through my head. I was looking at the new Dana Farber building that they have been in the midst of building since I started going there. I have watched that building be built from it's foundation. Each appointment I had, some new phase of the building project was being started. I saw all of the inner beams of the building as the cranes lifted them and put them in place. On the main beams in neon paint are names painted big enough that you can see them from a ways away. I believe they are the names of children affected by and being treated at the Dana. I had the opportunity one day last winter to sign a beam in memory of my mother. The beams are all but covered up now. Now you can see the workers inside the building working in the stairwells and all over the building. I believe the building is slated to open in 2011. The Longwood Medical area in Boston seems to be thriving - it is so sad - the construction of new wings and new buildings to accommodate growing numbers of patients. Cancer patients. It is hard to believe how far that building has come in what seems like such a short time -- I feel the same way about myself and my journey. I am now more put together than I have ever been, I am strong, I have a bigger capacity to give of myself and I see a bright future ahead.

Are you wondering what is up with the Tough Warrior Princesses? We are having a reunion tomorrow (Sept. 19th) at Vicky's house. Although some of us see each other all of the time, there are others I haven't seen since our walk. I can't wait to feel the magic of what happens with the 10 of us get together. Good times!

We are working on the Oct. 1st "Pink Carpet Premiere" party to be held at the Lafayette Club at 7:00 p.m. in Amesbury. We have learned that our documentary is now complete and has been sent off to New Balance. There is a 10 minute film which will be posted on YouTube (will post the link once we have it) and used at Komen events for which New Balance is a sponsor. There is also a 90 second teaser film for New Balance Retail Stores and a 30 second spot in the works as well. They will be released on Oct. 1st and the Tough Warrior Princesses will be seeing it for the first time at the party! We hope that you are able to come join in the celebration of a beautiful journey with us. Please bring your friends. There is a $10 suggested donation at the door, as we are already fundraising for our 2011 60 Mile / 3 Day walk. We are hearing that our friends from the advertising agency, Marketing Drive will be there along with representatives from New Balance, YouTube and possibly Element Productions. The people that created this are truly spectacular and we hope to remain friends for a long time.

We are running a 5k as the Tough Warrior Prinesses on Sept. 25th in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Boston. We have all been training and have a lot of first time runners. It has been so much fun watching friends and family that had never run before take on this challenge and I can't wait to witness them conquer it. I have a new respect and love for each of you. Determination and a goal - you can do anything! If anyone is interested in joining the team and running or walking with us that day, please let me know. The more the merrier!!

The next day, Sept. 26th is Katie's walk for Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Katie has raised over $1,000 towards her cause this year and we are so proud of her!!! If you ever want to see someone with strength and determination look no further than Katie. She is my HERO. Since the day she was diagnosed with Juvenile Diabetes 2 1/2 years ago, she has been dedicated to the cause. So far in these 2 1/2 years she has raised $8,500. She deals with constant blood sugar checks, highs, lows - nurses, doctors and parents who sometimes suffocate her. She handles it all with grace and rarely complains.

I will post another blog update soon letting you know how we fared at our Reunion, the 5k Race and the Juvenile Diabetes walk. And... to remind you again on the Pink Carpet Premiere.

Thank you for all the love and support!!