Impact Connecticut!

Sometimes I forget that Susan G. Komen for the Cure started with one woman. That fact is always in my head, somewhere, but sometimes when I’m watching commercials for Komen or hearing something on the radio, I forget. And then I get in a room with the Komen Connecticut staff, and like tonight, in a room with the Team Captains for the 2010 Race for the Cure and I remember that Susan G. Komen for the Cure was started by one woman. With all of them women (and men) in the room it reminds you that it started with just one. But it’s when that one woman connects with another, and those two connect with others that it starts to grow and that a one-woman organization can grow to become the largest grassroots organization in the country. Komen for the Cure is now a GLOBAL organization.

We have about 30 of our Team Captains in the room tonight and they represent the 273 teams we currently have signed up for this year’s Race for the Cure. Judy Caturano, the Team Captain Chair shared with us that those 273 have raised over $117,000 of the current $177,000 raised so far for this year’s race. How amazing is that?! One person can start a team, and that team can go on to raise $10,000 or more. We’re just one little state and yet for this cause we can come together and raise money to support their fellow CT residents. 75% of all money raised at the Race for the Cure will STAY IN CONNECTICUT and help CT residents pay for mammograms, treatment and support. The other 25% will go to research to find the cure for breast cancer.

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who is participating in this year’s Race for the Cure! If you’ve never been, it’s an absolutely amazing day in Bushnell Park in Hartford and the energy is unbelievable. People are excited to be there; honoring someone or remembering someone. People are happy, and sad. Laughing and crying. It’s really amazing. If you’d like to register, go to the Komen Connecticut website! And if you’d like to join a team, feel free to join mine! I’ll be walking around all day Facebooking and Tweeting  for KomenCT and running the 5k race! Join my team, Nutmeggers for Komen!

A story from tonight’s Team Captains Reception: One of the walkers, Patty Fox of TEAM PATTY was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 38. THIRTY. EIGHT. With the new “guidelines” out there that say screening should start at age 50, I say NO WAY. Susan G. Komen for the Cure says you should get your baseline mammogram at age 35 and start getting yearly at age 40. Anyway, so Patty went to her doctor and was diagnosed with melanoma on her arm. At some point she or they found a lump in her breast and she went for a mammogram. Because she’s young, her mammogram came up clean. Her doctor told her she shouldn’t worry because of her age and that it was most likely benign. But they went ahead and got the ultrasound and there they found something. Still, her doctor said she was most likely fine, it would be benign. When she went further, she found she had Stage 2 Invasive Ductal Carcinoma. She went through aggressive chemo and radiation and is currently is post-treatment. She still doesn’t call herself a survivor, not yet.

Stories like hers, when you see breast cancer affecting a real person with a family and a life, and it makes you want to get involved. Get involved! Impact your community!