I heard some news today that dampened my heart and had me thinking about what this next journey for Joints in Motion in January 2013 means to me. Sadly one of the members of the BC Joints in Motion team that was to travel to the Bahamas with us as a Cheer Team member passed away last week of complications from her arthritis. She was 36 and had been living with a form of arthritis, juvenile onset rheumatiod arthritis, since the age of 8. She had exhausted all available medications on the market for her form of arthritis and was on the newest drug which was released in October 2011. Every other drug had run it's course and was no longer effective in treating her arthritis.
The reason why I'm sharing this with you is because this is the reality for someone living with arthritis. Each drug is only effective for so long before it runs it's course and each patient finds success with only some of the drugs making funding for research so incredibly important for this group of diseases. The Arthritis Society is 100% donor funded, it no longer receives goverment funding and hasn't for many years now which is why programs like Joints in Motion are so important to raise awareness and get more donors like you.
Today was a tough day for me. There is one other person out there who knows what the experience in the Caymans with Joints in Motion meant to me as she was with me down there, my Mom. Fortunately today my Mom came downtown Vancouver to meet me for lunch and I had the opportunity to share my sadness with her. Though I never met the person who passed away, I had tears streaming down my face as I told my Mom the news. My sadness is for the incredibly brave people in my life that I knew before or met in the Caymans who face this debilitating, life changing disease with a bravery I could only hope to muster should it be me. They inspire me to be a better person and are the reason why I signed up to do another marathon to raise more money for the Arthritis Society in January 2013.
In all honesty I've been really bad with both my training and my fundraising lately and have decided that all changes today. I will be updating this blog more often with my training and fundraising progress, news on fundraising events and stories of my journey to raise another $4900 for the Arthritis Society. Those of you that know me know that I am not one to ask for help and I'm absolutely terrible at asking for donations. Well today is the day that changes too. I know too many special people living with arthritis to not ask for your help and I can't lose any of them!
I know that there are many causes out there and many different charities that need assistance. I am asking you to consider donating to my fundraising for the Arthritis Society this year as one of your donations. The link to my fundraising page is at the top right hand corner of this page. Click on "Donate Now" and you will be re-directed to my page where you can donate online. Should you wish to make an offline donation, please send me a message and I will arrange that with you offline. Thank you taking the time to read my blog, stay tuned as I'm sure I will have some humourous stories to tell along my journey again this year. Most importantly, thank you for your support!
