Post 1!

Dear Friends and Family,

I am excited to announce that I’m on The Team! I'm training for St. Anthony’s Triathlon as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team In Training. Laugh as you may, (I am! I have Borden genes, not swim almost a mile, bike 24 miles then run 6 miles genes! ) but you’ll see my goal goes beyond overcoming my genes, and you’ll want to join me on my journey….

Meet my reason to TRI: Brendan!

Our families have been friends for years. Brendan’s grandparents and my parents are good friends and his mom, J.J., babysat for me and my sister. Maggie and I absolutely adored our time with J.J. As we all grew up, JJ moved out of Marion and was later married and had a BABY! That was when I came to meet Brendan. He was the cutest kid on the planet! J.J. and Kevin even let me babysit (brave parents…). As time passed we all continued to go our separate ways, being kept up-to-date through our parents, not to mention the joys of Facebook!

This summer, 14 year old Brendan looked forward to starting high school. He began not feeling well, lost his appetite and was very tired; his mom thought he might have mono. This progressed to a trip to the ER when the lymph node on his neck swelled. After many tests, the results were in; Brendan was diagnosed Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

Brendan is currently in treatment and showing Hodgkin’s who’s boss. But his treatments are tough, they come with nasty side effects and leave him tired and open to other infections. As if freshman year of high school isn’t hard enough?

I can’t take away Brendan’s cancer, go through treatment for him or even take on the side effects, but I can help to find a cure. So I am training for St. Anthony’s in honor of Brendan and all individuals who are battling blood cancers. Brendan is the hero on my team, and I am looking for your support to cross the ultimate finish line - a cure!

My goal my look vast but I am determined to reach beyond it with your help.

Thanks for check out my Blog! At my TNT website you can make donations, learn more about Brendan and how I am fighting the Borden genes. You won’t want to miss “The Top 10 Reasons I TRI”. And don’t worry; I will not be posting any pictures of swim practice...  (If you're lucky!)

Thank you in advance for your donations and support.

Emily