Pureed Pzazz: Jun 18, 2012

Monday, June 18, 2012

TeamHope

Wow! What an amazing weekend! TeamHope is an outreach of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCan) for individuals to participate in marathons across the country to raise funds and awareness for pancreatic cancer. On Saturday , there was a group of 50 TeamHope runners that participated in Duluth's famous Grandma's Marathon. They raised more than $26,000! I had helped plan the event in a small way and my husband, Tom, and I helped staff our TeamHope water station at mile marker 22, cheering on TeamHope runners. Tom's enthusiasm and good humor were appreciated by both runners and volunteers, while I often rested in a chair on the sidelines, amazed at how this event had all come together so well.

Tom does everything with gusto! Runners could easily grab a cup of ice from his unwavering, strong arm!

Marathon Goddess

There were many inspiring stories of runners who have been affected by pancreatic cancer and have turned their anguish into a determination to advance funding for pancreatic cancer. One of the runners, Julie Weiss, is a self-declared Marathon Goddess, who lost her father to pancreatic cancer last year. She is slated to run 52 marathons in 2012, and Grandma's Marathon was her 10th one this year. She has already raised over $100,000 for pancreatic cancer research. Amazing!!!

See her website at: http://marathongoddess.com/

Another such story is Sara Peterson, whose father is on the board of directors for Grandma's Marathon and is now battling pancreatic cancer. See this link for an inspiring article about their journey. http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/234254/publisher_ID/36/

Pancreatic Cancer: Know it. Fight it. End it.

Join the Effort!

Contributions for Grandma's Marathon TeamHope will be accepted online until December 31. http://teamhope.kintera.org/faf/search/searchTeamPart.asp?ievent=1011589&team=4953312

You can donate to any individual listed there, or make a general team contribution.