Thank you for visiting my fundraising page!
As many of you know, my father, Gerry Gendell, was diagnosed with Stage IV Metastatic Melanoma in January 2008. We are hopeful that treatments will help stop the progression of the disease, but for now he is enduring difficult chemotherapy with complete uncertainty as to the hopes for success.
The grace and courage he and my mother have shown in facing this disease was the inspiration for my run. If they can manage that challenge, I could drag my 40-year-old self through a marathon!
The process of learning about my father's disease and treatment raised my awareness of the deadly nature of the disease and the limited options for patients. About 1 person per hour dies of melanoma in the United States. Some of the most common therapies for melanoma are quite old technology, help only a limited percentage of patients, and have terrible side effects. There are many promising new therapies in trial and in the lab, but they require research dollars to come to fruition. The Melanoma Research Foundation is the foremost organization providing support to melanoma researchers in the U.S. and your dollars will go to help.
UPDATE: Reached my goals!
Thanks to all of you who have given to support my run, we successfully reached our goal of "$40 for 40" or $40,000 for my fortieth birthday. In fact, the total gifts are now in excess of $50,000! That is awesome, but may have stolen the thunder from my planned "$50 for 50" campaign in 2018!
Also, I successfully complete the Philadelphia marathon on 11/23 with a time of 4:15. I am really thrilled with that result for my first marathon and look forward to bettering that time in the next one.
All of that said, this page is still open for gifts and all support for the MRF is welcome at any time.
Giving on this site is the quickest and easiest way to make a gift. If you would like to send a check, you can see the details of how to do it at http://www.melanoma.org/donate.aspx, but please note "M4M - Brad Gendell" so we can count your gift toward our goal. Also, gifts are 100% tax deductible.
Many thanks for your support!