I am running the Richmond Marathon on November 14, 2008 to raise money for Comfort Zone Camp (CZC), a not-for-profit bereavement camp for kids who have lost a significant loved one, such as a parent or sibling.

Support David by making a donation to Comfort Zone Camp

My goal is to raise $ 30,000 – the full cost of a camp weekend. I would be eternally grateful if you could help me help the folks at CZC. Here is the story of why I am raising this money. In short it is because my family was lucky enough not to need their help. Many kids cannot make the same statement. If you are interested, here is the “long version” of why I am running:

For me and my family, April 16th 2007 will be remembered as the day that my wife, the mother of my three delightful daughters, was diagnosed with breast cancer. As we progressed through the following few days we discovered that she was well into stage III breast cancer. While a breast cancer diagnosis is always a kick in the teeth, this was particularly stunning, as 8 months earlier my wife had received a clean bill of health after her first mammogram. She was 44 years old--this was not supposed to happen to a 44 year old mother.

As we learned more, bad news continued to be followed by bad news. Cindy’s tumor was larger than 5 cm, which means it had grown fast from eight months earlier when it was undetectable by a thorough mammogram screening. Also, the cancer was in her lymph nodes and likely beginning to migrate to other parts of her body. Her cancer was HER-2 positive which is a particularly nasty and aggressive strain of cancer. It was also estrogen receptor negative, meaning it could grow and thrive without estrogen as an accelerant.

We were scared beyond words. And while wanted to focus on Cindy’s recovery, and did not want to dwell on summary data, the reality is, patients with her type of cancer are usually lucky to survive five years after this type of diagnosis.

I am running the 2008 Richmond marathon to help Comfort Zone Camp, because there were many times of the last year that I would wake up late at night staring at the ceiling, pondering the range of outcomes from this disease.  The thing that scared me the most (and still makes me break out into a cold sweat) was facing the very real possibility that I could have three daughters looking to me for comfort, assurance and guidance, and all I would be able to give them was a blank stare coupled with the reality that I had no idea what to do next.

Luckily, we have not had to face the worst of possibilities. Cindy’s oncologist at the Virginia Cancer institute told us that the “good news” was that Cindy was young and healthy so he could use the most aggressive chemotherapy he could prescribe. While this was good news, the frightening reality was that if this aggressive and hard hitting plan was not effective, there was not a lot of confidence that “Plan B” would be more effective. We were essentially “all in” from the start of treatment.

My wife’s chemotherapy, along with the support of friends and family have given us a second chance and Cindy’s prognosis has gone from pretty bleak to optimistic. However, I realize that not all families get this news. Not all families have the support of friends and families to pull them through very difficult times. There are kids that have to face an uncertain future with a parent gone from their lives forever.

It is this reason, that we were lucky enough not to need to services of CZC, that I want to raise money to help the families who were not as lucky as ours. My goal is to raise$30,000, the cost of a full CZC weekend camp. I have no idea if we will get close to that number or not, but we are going to try and we need your help.

If you would like to help us or if your company can help us, it would enable us to provide help for children and families that were not as lucky as mine. Knowing that we could have been on the other side of this fence, I’d like to help those who did not get the good breaks we did.

Thank you for you time and consideration.

We had some incredible assets in our fight against cancer, and I would be remiss at best and ungrateful at worst if I did not mention those who were so instrumental in helping my family and me:

First, we had the unwavering support of family and friends. Also, Mooreland Farms neighbors, Collegiate families, St. Bridget’s Families, St, Stephens’ “Red Room” Families, as well as friends and neighbors from past neighborhoods and jobs rallied around us. Their support and caring is a large part of the success of the treatment. We also got a huge break in the care and supports from Dr. Trent and the wonderful nursing staff at the Virginia Cancer Institute. General Surgeon Dr Knaysi and Susan Yuli were of tremendous help to us. The big break for us came however, when it became apparent that the chemo cocktails that Dr. Trent has prescribed were working. Thank you.