If you’re reading this, I hope you can’t relate. I’m writing this because I never want you to. 

I can recite the stats: colon cancer is the second leading cause of cancer related death in the United States. The 5 year survival rate of stage 4 metastatic colon cancer is 13%-15%. 

I learned my mom, my favorite lady, was diagnosed 65 weeks and 6 days ago. 

And for the last 65 weeks and 6 days the cancer has fought to make itself known. 

It is an attention hog and a thief. 

It’s taken the meat off her bones. It has stolen the feeling from her finger tips. It makes her sleepy and sick. Every day is a new fight that we’re not always sure how to prepare for - a new challenge, a new side effect, a new uncertainty.

And for 65 weeks and 6 days cancer has joined us for every holiday, every birthday, every vacation, every family dinner. It pulled a chair up to the table and has refused to leave.

But I am grateful for the moments that drowned out the insistence of the cancer - My sister’s wedding, my nephews’ birthday, my niece making honor roll - there are beautiful moments over the last 65 weeks and 6 days where I catch myself breathing a little easier, where the laughter rings louder than the fear and joy takes up more space than the cancer. 

I used to think these were the days the cancer was being polite - when it was sitting at the table quietly. 

But I know better. It was not because the cancer was polite. It’s because my mom, Kathie, is as tough as they come.

And before my mom’s battle began, I lost my grandmother Grace, “Jerry”, to the same disease.

Two generations. The same thief. I refuse to let this continue for my family or yours. 

I’m walking in Get Your Rear in Gear because I’ve learned that the only thing worse than living inside these statistics is knowing they don’t have to stay this way. When caught early, colon cancer is highly treatable. Research is moving. But not fast enough.

So I walk for Kathie, who fights every single day. I walk for Jerry, who didn’t get more time. And I walk for every family that knows exactly what these 65 weeks and 6 days feel like.

Will you walk with me?

Your donation funds research, early detection, and the day when a stage 4 diagnosis doesn’t come with a 13% survival rate attached to it. No amount is too small. Every dollar is a step toward that day.