Message From Doug

Friends,

I’m Still Running Against Cancer

This year, I find myself in the very fortunate position of being healthy enough to run the Chicago Marathon for a third time. Last year my friends, family and colleagues donated over $5500 to the American Cancer Society on my behalf...and in honor of a family member who lost the battle with cancer, Michael McLendon.

Many of you do not know that less than a month before last year’s race, my Uncle Jim Arthur succumbed after a brave three-year battle with pancreatic cancer. Jim was an athlete in his own right – he’d run two Silver State Marathons and even climbed Mount Whitney at age 70. He loved to ski and had retired with my Aunt Margy to Lake Tahoe. Into his 70’s, he was still vibrant, healthy, trim. When I was much younger, I never really “got” Uncle Jim. Coming from a loud, showy family of performers, anyone who was not that way seemed foreign to me. And Jim was neither loud nor showy. He was an engineer. And it wasn’t until later in life that I got the opportunity to discover that there was so much more to him that that. He was incredibly intelligent, had a fantastic, understated sense of humor, was steady and strong, an amazing husband and father.

Cancer took many, many healthy years away from him. Yet on his way out, he didn’t complain. He faced the end of his life with Aunt Margy and his children, Steve, Tom and Jennifer at his side, in his home at Tahoe. Much like Michael, he and his family chose to make his passing a strengthening experience.

Please support me.

So this year I will ask you all to donate to the American Cancer Society again. Next year, it would be great if I didn’t have to tell another story about another family member passing away; I know that day will someday come. Donating online is easy, and you can donate now. Please help me honor the people who have been touched by cancer, and to bring hope to those currently facing the disease.

Please visit my personal page on the American Cancer Society website...and give!

CLICK HERE!

Thank you all in advance.

Doug