I relay for the future
Friday, May 18, 2012
By: Kimberly Vivian

I relay for the ones I have lost, for the ones who are still battling and for a future where my children won't have to relay anymore.

Over the course of my short 35 years I have lost a number of people to cancer. My Grandma Oma - Toni Versluis, my Granpa Jo Versluis whom I barely got to meet because of his battle, my Grandmother Audrey Hodge, my dear friend Orville Greenwood, Anne Sands, and the list goes on and on. I have family and friends who have fought their battles and won and I know people still fighting their fight. In the long run, who doesn't have a long list of people that this disease has affected.
I walk in the memory of so many and in honor of those who are still going through their struggle. But mostly I walk in the hopes that one day, my children won't have to carry on my walk. I want to be a small part of helping find a cure for this horrible disease. It destroys lives that have so much more to still give.
My team is made up of mothers and daughters who all feel the same way, we want a cure and we won't stop walking until there is one. We only began our adventure last year but the impact it has had on each of us was incredible.
My moment of clarity last year was when the luminaries were lit around the track. I broke down when I realised just how many lives Cancer touches. It was breath taking and heart wrenching to see so many lights to guide us through the night. Reading the names and recognizing so many of them was too much to bear but it gave me strength to keep going. It reminded me why I was there. I won't easily forget that moment, I will carry it with me as the sun goes down this year as well.
I will walk this year with the strength of all the survivors and the angels above me guiding me to make it just one more lap. I will walk this year with my mother, my teenage daughter and my six year old daughter also. I will walk and fight for the future.
M.A.D. for a Cure Mothers and Daughters