My dear friends and family,

As I approach my 50th birthday, and my 10th year of living with metastatic breast cancer, I am again asking for your support. I am training for my 2nd half marathon.....definitely walking it.......and I am not ashamed to say that my friends Karen Silien, Amy Eskind, and I walked it in 4 hours, 5 minutes, and 23 seconds, last year in April !!!! Come on...it's 13.1 miles. Anyway, it is especially meaningful for me to sit down and write this through my tears on the day Nashville lost Nancy Saturn to this fucking disease. Nancy was the first of a handful of very strong and special women to help me out of my dizzying confusion in the early months after my diagnosis. She will be missed by me and so many others for her strength, kindness and incredible love of Gilda's Club, Nashville, a FREE cancer support community for anyone touched by cancer, and those that love him or her

I am training with Gilda's Gang. This group was created by the lovely and talented Gail Addlestone, M.D. She saw the need to give back, and stay healthy and strong as she fought her way through chemo. We lost Gail way too soon. I wrestle with God in my mind as to how (s)he can keep taking these special people while we need them so....

The money I raise will go to Gilda's Club, Nashville. A place where "come as you are" is their mantra. And, so many folks can be supported as they navigate their way through any and all types of cancer.

As for me, I have had a difficult start in my training. I took a nasty fall during a 4 mile training session with The Gang. Honestly, it has taken me a while to get back into my Saucony's :) I have no doubt that I will be ready. It may just take me a little longer on race day. I had a questionable scan back in December, so Bruce and I are holding our breath until my next PET scan in April. That's the thing about cancer.....you're always waiting for the news that it has spread. Mine was metastatic upon diagnosis; it had already spread to my sternum, so I have never been cancer free. But my doctors have managed to keep it in my sternum for 10 years....without chemo or radiation....a MIRACLE in my book.

I know the economy is tough. Please do what you can to support me and Gilda's Club, Nashville in the next few monts.

Much love, and THANKS,

Karen