As many of you know, I will be running my second marathon with Team In Training on June 1st at the San Diego Rock N Roll marathon. However, you may not fully know why I run-and why I choose to do it with Team In Training.
This season our Team Hero is Brandan, and this is his story:
"It was a beautiful Friday when Brandan started to appear a lot more tired than usual. A routine call to the pediatrician ended with the words “Don’t worry so much, he is just probably growing and teething”. However, the next morning worry would turn into sheer panic when Brandan was rushed to the ER because he had turned extremely pale and started bleeding from his nose and mouth, while bruises started to visibly grow out of nowhere on his lifeless body. In a matter of minutes, he was rushed to The Children’s Hospital where he was diagnosed with a rare case of AML Leukemia. The cancer was attacking all of his organs and reached his brain through the spinal fluid. Brandan turned 11 months old that day; and spent 32 days in ICU on life support, had 3 respiratory arrests, 9 life threatening infections, and severe allergic reactions to the chemo treatment, and yet rode out of the hospital with No Evidence of Disease (NED) on October 27th, 2007 and remains in remission to everyone’s amazement as a normal 18 month old boy. Only his many scars on his chest, arm and legs tell the story of a infant who was told the day he was diagnosed to say goodbye to his family, because infants like him just do not survive; he just “forgot to listen” and continues to defy all odds related to his prognosis. Brandan’s family feels, “blessed to be part of the miracles that happen at Children's every day! - and with the support of the Rocky Mountain Leukemia and Lymphoma Society"
This is why I run - because I know that I am not accomplishing a personal feat of an endurance event, but I am helping to raise awareness and support for people like Brandan. With our help and donations, we can continue the research towards ground breaking discoveries that continue to allow children and adults who suffer with cancer the opportunity to achieve remission from their cancer - and stay there!
