Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Why I walk




Well, I did it again. I walked 60 miles this weekend in Chicago with about 1,600 other people in Susan G. Komen's 2010 Chicago 3-Day Walk for the Cure.

During the closing ceremony on Sunday, some participants were joined on-stage by the people that motivated them to walk. A woman carrying a "For my friend" flag was joined by her friend, a woman who was obviously pregnant and obviously going through chemotherapy. Another woman, perhaps in her 60's, was joined by her daughter who wore a pink survivor's shirt. This moment gave me an opportunity to reflect on my own motivation to walk.

It's actually a question that I am asked often. Those who know me well know that when I signed up for my first 3-day last year I had no real personal connection to the cause. I had not had a grandmother, mother, aunt, sister or friend diagnosed with breast cancer. I have never watched someone fight the disease. And while during this last year I learned that my college roommate, with whom I had basically lost contact, was diagnosed with breast cancer, I cannot say that she is the reason I keep walking.

I walk for those people on Sunday's stage. I walk because I had no personal connection to the cause. I walk because a breast cancer diagnosis of my mother, my sister, my friends would undo me. I walk for those people that have had to endure such a fate (and fight). To quote a t-shirt I saw this weekend, "I walk to support the fighters, to honor the survivors and to remember the taken." I walk for the person who wrote on Chicago's rememberance tent, "Grandma, please take care of Mom in heaven." I walk so that no one else will ever have to utter such a sentiment. I walk to end breast cancer.

The walk is amazing and I'll try to get back to post about what a wonderful time I had doing it with friends (old and new), but I want to dedicate this post to those for whom I walk: anyone diagnosed with or taken by breast cancer and those who love them.

3 comments:

Jamie said...

Glad to see you are back into blogging mode, and can't wait to hear more! You could not have said this any better! That moment at the closing ceremoy haunts me!

Kathleen said...

Wonderful post Becca.

Kimberlee said...

Couldn't have said it better. Thanks for saying what I was thinking.

 
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