Dear Friends and Family:

If you have come this far you already know I am participating in AVON 39 The Walk to End Breast Cancer, this year in Santa Barbara.  This will be my FIFTEENTH 39 mile walk, which means I have already walked 546 miles to help end this terrible disease and I have raised over $300,000 to help women who lack the funds and support network that I was so lucky to have.  I believe in paying it forward and I hope that you will support me in that effort.  This will likely be my last walk as I am getting pretty old, to say the least, and I am hoping to go out with a BANG in my fundraising.  I hope you will help me in that effort.

As many of you know, I was diagnosed with Stage 2 Triple Negative Breast Cancer eleven years ago.  I found the lump myself while on a business trip to India and it was already fairly large notwithstanding that I always got yearly mammograms.  TNBC is the most aggressive, fast-growing breast cancer and the most difficult to treat and it has confounded the medical and scientific communities in its resistance to the many new treatments that have been developed over the last 15 years.  Nevertheless,  I was blessed to receive superb and caring medical treatment and to have the support of a loving and wonderful family, which made all the difference in the results.  So many women are not so lucky -- they have neither money nor family -- and I walk to help them on the path to survival.

Since my diagnosis, my world has changed and grown so much.  My children and stepchildren are married and I have six brilliant and gorgeous grandsons.  I have travelled to many new countries and made many new friends.  If I had not had such wonderful care and support none of that would have been possible.  Please help me help other women have the same good fortune.

I have attached a picture of me in the middle of treatment, bald and in my favorite Moe hat.  That hat was my good luck talisman and I wore it through my last radiation appointment long after chemo.  I have kept the hat and the picture all these years to remind me how far I have come.  It still makes me smile.

You can make a donation right here on my webpage by clicking the "Donate Now" button to the right.  It is perfectly secure and you will receive a confirmation by email.  If you prefer to write a check, click the "Donate by Mail" button and follow the instructions on the form.

Your donations will be managed and disbursed by the Avon Breast Cancer Crusade. The dollars you pledge will put food on the table of a breast cancer patient and her family. They will enable access to mammograms and medicine, fuel research, and save lives. Need any more reason to click that Donate Now button?

I’m walking with thousands of other 39ers. We’re banding together in solidarity and have one goal: to take breast cancer down. So many sisters and mothers and friends have been lost. We see a world without breast cancer for our daughters and nieces. AVON 39 is a force of change that can’t be stopped. By supporting me with a donation, you’re part of it.

Thank you so much for your support!