Laurie's Mission Moment

We start each of our rides with a Mission Moment. This is when someone tells a personal story about how their life has been touched by blood cancers. Today's talk was given by our Team Coordinator, Laurie.

Laurie is a coordinator with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Her job is to recruit and retain participants like me and organize endurance events with the overall goal of raising money to find a cure for cancers. It's a lot of work, the hours are long and I'm sure the pay isn't very good, considering she works for a non-profit. She started out as a participant on the Walk team, just like I did. She recounts that at that time she had no direct link the the "mission" and joined the walk team for personal fitness reasons. She became good friends with two other participants during that season, including one that was a blood cancer survivor. That woman was mother to two little girls and was training for a marathon and was one of the Team's honored teammates. She had fought back cancer two times over the years. She lost her battle with a third bout of cancer a few days ago. It was heart-wrenching to hear the story but even more so for me to watch Laurie, struggling to retain her composure while recounting the story. Tears welled in her eyes, her face flushed, her lips quivered as she described how her friend's life changed from "is" to "was". She no no longer "is" she is now a "was". I don't think this is something you can ever get used to even if you work for the Leukemia Society.