Dear Friends and Family,

 

Many of you may know that I ran my first marathon in Richmond last year in honor of my father, Philip Wise, who passed away March 30, 2009 after a 10 month battle with metastatic melanoma.  My dear friend, Swata Gandhi, had the singlet made that you see in the picture here.  I felt like Dad was with me every step of the way. 

I learned during his illness and death just how little we really understand about how to effectively kill cancer without killing the patient in the process.  The frustration of that sense of helplessness encouraged me to raise money for Melanoma Research.  One of my fellow teammates, Kevin Brue, ran in the Marine Corps marathon last year.  Kevin was a melanoma survivor, but the ugly disease came back this year, and Kevin died early this summer.  He was in his late 30s with three children and an incredibly strong wife.

This year I am running the Marine Corps marathon in Kevin's honor, and in the honor of all those who are fighting this deadly disease.  I hope you will consider supporting me in whatever way you can.  Your donation gives hope to others like my Dad and Kevin, that one day there will be a cure.

With Love and Gratitude,

Myra