Race for the Cure 2006

I promised you something from the Race For The Cure and here it is. I, for some reason, signed up with a Team this year. Usually I run this race by myself and for myself and just go home There is a new radio station in Portland, KIJZ-Smooth Jazz 105.9. I very much enjoy smooth jazz and was delighted to discover this station. Janine Wolf, the DJ from 9:00am to 2:00pm, is a breast cancer survivor, as is her sister Kathy. She formed a team, Janine's Team, sponsered by KIJZ. I joined. There were 38 of us, but only partly "survivors" and the rest were supporters. I got up really early (5:15am) and ran the Co-ed 5K and then joined my team to do the 5K Walk at 9:00am. Since there were almost 46,000 walkers, it took until 9:45 for us to even approach the start line. It is very inspirational to see so very many pink hats and pink shirts in one place. Every "pink" person represents a survivor. One of the members of our team, very recently diagnosed and treated, had never met anyone who had cancer and survived. It was a real boost to her to meet those of us who were survivors from 5 to over 25 years and were very much alive and very active. This is why we do this. We want to share that there is life after a cancer diagnosis. It can be lived with, in spite of and after. Sharing our experiences is sharing life and hope. I know that is why all of us continue to do this. For most of the year our history of cancer is just that....history, and we don't really dwell on it. But this is an opportunity to give hope and encouragment to those people, men and women, who are recently facing this challange. It is also a message to not ignore regular checkups or symptoms. It does not need to be fatal. There is hope and life to be lived.

I hope you all enjoy these photos. Some were taken by my new friends on Janine's Team and some are mine. If you want to view a gallery of our photos, go to kijz.com and enter the keyword "team" and you'll be able to see all of them.