Those of you that already know me in person or have me on Facebook already know about this but I figured that I should reach out to the MI community as well.
My Uncle was diagnosed with a stage four glioblastoma multiforme last Fall; brain cancer. He went from being a vibrant person and great athlete to a speechless, wheelchair bound fraction of who he used to be in a matter of months. About two months to be exact. He has three wonderful children, the youngest of which is currently 14 years old, and an amazing wife who has been his rock through all of this. The prognosis we were given last October was 6-12 months and considering we're all in University I'm sure you can do the math, he's reached the end of the timeline. His brain tumour is also inoperable. We have tried chemo and radiation as well but neither have helped, at this point they are being used to ensure some quality of life until the end.
The reason I am reaching out to the MI community is because my dad decided that he needed to do something about this and he decided to fundraise. On November 2nd my dad is racing the Ironman Florida triathlon. For those of you that don't know, an Ironman consists of a 2.4-mile (3.86 km) swim, a 112-mile (180.25 km) bike and a marathon 26.2-mile (42.2 km) run raced in that order and without a break. The race takes anywhere from 8-13 hours for most endurance athletes.
My dad is trying to raise $6000 that he will donate to Princess Margaret's Brain Tumour Center. We chose this center because they have been absolutely amazing to my family and have helped us every single step of the way. The other reason is that we want to raise awareness about brain cancer. Many of you hear about breast cancer, ovarian cancer, childhood cancer, prostate cancer etc through the media but brain cancer is rarely discussed and it IS one of the most deadly. Researchers that my family has spoken to have all made it very clear that few ever make it past one year with glioblastoma multiforme but that current research papers often do not show this because of the lack of interest in the area. We are trying to make a change, albeit a small change.
Many of you that know me in person have already made donations or voiced your support and I cannot begin to tell you how much that has meant to my family and I. I am posting this on MI because we are currently $2000ish short of our goal and I would love to reach this goal before the race and before my uncle passes away... I know this is a bit of an odd plea and that we're all students but any monetary support, prayers or positive vibes make a huge difference to us. Even just sharing this with friends or family or looking into brain cancer would be amazing.
If you would like to donate here is the donation site:
http://pmhf3.akaraisin.com/PersonalP...CA&pid=1208875
Thank you so, so, so much for taking the time to read this. It really does mean a lot.
If you have more questions about this feel free to post or inbox me.
