The timing of this charity marathon is now completely uncanny from my perspective. On December 18th, 2011, my grandmother Ardelle passed away at the age of 79 from Mantle-Cell Lymphoma. This super aggressive cancer took her life a mere three days after we had any indication that something was seriously wrong. She was feeling a little fatigued but otherwise alright earlier that week, so she went to the doctor on Wednesday, December 14th. We got the call that night that she needed to be hospitalized immediately. By Thursday, her white blood cell count had jumped up to 120,000 (normal is 12k). By Friday, that count had jumped up to 196k. By Saturday, any idea of attempting chemotherapy or hope for recovery was gone, and then she was gone less than an hour into Sunday, December 18th. While the suddenness of the whole situation was hard to take in, I am only thankful that, in the end, she passed quickly and peacefully, rather than going through the months of suffering that her husband - my grandfather - went through due to lung cancer four years ago. I'm not telling you all this to garner pity or sympathy. My grandmother wouldn't want that. She was a strong, kind woman and a breast cancer survivor of 9 years. She outlived her husband and many of her closest friends, yet she still managed to live an independent and active life all the way to the very end. Instead, I wanted to make this initial donation as a way of honoring her memory while also demonstrating how cancer can have both a lasting impact and a devastatingly fast impact on the lives of the afflicted and their loved ones. I hope that anyone who is on the fence about donating to the Prevent Cancer Foundation might reflect on this account and others like it and be convinced to donate what they can during the SDA marathon. - Shayne â??SN64â?? Hill P.S. Please put my $200 toward making Mike Uyama torture himself with Sub-Terrania for everyone's amusement.
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