Raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Please support a good friend of mine:

Hello!

Right now, many of you may be feeling a small sense of deja vu, saying to yourself: “didn’t Nicole JUST fundraise for and run a marathon?” And you’re right – I DID just run a marathon… and I’m back for more! All last winter I trained and raised money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS), which culminated with the rainy, freezing, windy Napa Marathon on March 5. Although the weather was awful during the race (even by my tough Seattle standards), I finished in 4 hours and 45 minutes (under my goal of 5 hours), made wonderful friends AND raised over $6400 for blood cancer research and patient care! This would not have been possible without the amazingly generous donations from you, so thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!!!!!

This season I have assumed more of a leadership role with TNT, and am training as a mentor for both the Maui Half Marathon (woo Hawaii!) and the Nike Women's Full Marathon in San Francisco. As a mentor, I am responsible for helping 10 new participants successfully raise money, train for and finish their goal events, just like my mentor Jocelyn helped me last season. It's really fun, and is an even more satisfying way to contribute to fighting blood cancers. Since I am also working to help my “mentees” raise money, I have set a more reasonable goal for this season, $2500, which is why I write to you today.

Those of you who donated last season heard about my mom, who was diagnosed with stage 4 mantle-cell lymphoma about a week after I moved down to Palo Alto in August to begin graduate school. Since then, she had 6 rounds of aggressive chemotherapy, received over 100 units of blood, swallowed countless pills, and underwent a stem-cell transplant in January, which involved massive radiation and even more chemo, as well as a 3 week hospital stay. For someone so independent, my mom endured her treatments with a grace, humor and strength so amazing; I can only hope it's genetic! Since January, she gotten stronger, grown her hair back and resumed living her life... and just a couple of weeks ago she was officially deemed "in remission"! While this is a HUGE cause for celebration, we still have 5 years to wait before we can begin to breathe easier, since the chance of recurrence dramatically drops after 5 cancer-free years. However, before LLS-funded research helped develop the her life-saving treatments, the survival rate for mantle cell lymphoma was just FIVE percent. This number has increased dramatically in the last couple of years, but it still has a long way to go.

While my mom was recovering, the mom of a close friend of mine from college was diagnosed with acute mylogenous leukemia (AML). For those of you who know, AML is a particularly nasty form of leukemia, and the sub-type she had made it even nastier. She fought valiantly, but succumbed to the cancer 2 months later. This loss has only solidified my determination to do as much as I can to make sure that in the near future, no one else has to watch someone they love suffer so. And, while I will always train in honor of my mom, this season I dedicate my training and fundraising to my wonderful friend Julia, her family, and the memory of her mom, Sandra Gottlieb.

Please help me to put an end to blood cancers by making a donation to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. This money goes directly towards research, patient care... and more fundraising! You can either donate on the secure website below (where you will also find a recent family photo and a shortened version of this letter), or email me and I can provide you with a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

One amazing thing that happened with my fundraising last season was that my brother, Dan, forwarded my letter to his football team at Colby College, and many of his teammates then forwarded the letter to their friends and families. As a result, both he and I received even more support than we had ever hoped for. Thank you, guys: BTP! So, if any of you know of anyone who knows our family, who has been touched by leukemia, lymphoma or myeloma, or you think would be interested in donating, please pass this letter along. As a mentor, I can also try and answer any questions you or others may have about TNT and the LLS.

So, please go to this website, check out the recent family photo, and please support the LLS and my training:

http://www.active.com/donate/tntsvmb/nicolegiuliani

Thank you again, for all of your support, past, present and future.

Love,
Nicole