A Fellow Team In Training Member Shares Her Thoughts About the Loss of a Dear Friend
Each week, April and I and the rest of our Team In Training teammates receive a newsletter with information related to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and Team In Training, like local TNT events, our training schedule, tips from our triathlon coach Cathy (who ROCKS, by the way), and other good stuff. One regular feature is the “Mission Moment”, which is usually the story of someone in the fold who has either battled blood cancer or been there for someone who has. This week’s really touched me, so I wanted to share it.
This is a journal entry from a co-worker of someone who works for Team In Training about her experience with TNT (she started as a participant on the marathon teams).
“A good friend of mine, my age, was diagnosed with Leukemia. I watched her and tried to help her through two years of battling, bone marrow transplant, and finally her last days at home. She is the mother of two young girls 12 & 13, close friends of my girls, and same ages, who lost their mother at a vital time in a young lady’s life. When she passed away the girls moved to their dads in California, so we lost all 3 of them.
When I first started training with Team In Training I was sad. I would cry during my runs. Soon it turned to anger, I felt like by running I was “getting revenge” on Leukemia. The closer it got to the Marathon I started feeling hope. I have hope that soon there will be a cure for all cancers. When I ran my first marathon, last June in San Diego (which was amazing by the way!), I went through all the emotions all over again. I am prepared to go through them again during the Seattle Marathon. The pain is not gone, but the hope is what keeps me motivated. My coaches were, and are, there for me throughout all of these emotions and I truly hold them dearly in my heart.
Team in Training has helped me in many ways. They have helped me get in better shape, but mostly helped me heal. I am doing this for my friend and all those who can’t, but wish they could”.
