Past Race Co-Chair Finds Strength in her Komen Family
Dear Elaine & My Friends at the Komen Philadelphia Affiliate,
As you know, This Mother's Day, I will be celebrating my seventh year as a breast cancer survivor at the Cure. Last year, I proudly walked the Survivor Parade of Pink with my aunt Elisa by my side, as my mother looked on below, waiting to embrace us both at the bottom of the Art Museum steps.
This year, Aunt Elisa will not be by my side... I will walk in her memory, honoring her fight to survive breast cancer, taken away this past fall by a cancer recurrence.
This year, my mother will not be waiting to embrace me at the bottom of the steps. I hope and pray she will be walking with me as a breast cancer survivor. As I write this, my mother and I are fighting. We are fighting for her life. We are fighting for my daughter's lives. We are fighting for the lives of all women present and future. We are fighting to stop the disease that takes one life every 69 seconds.
It is because of Komen that we have the courage to do this... and the conviction that we will come out winners. On behalf of my mother and myself, and in the spirit of my dear Aunt Elisa, I thank you for taking every step of the journey with us - for your compassion, support and friendship.
Sincerely yours,
Lorelei McGlade
Co-Chairperson
2009-2010 Komen Philadelphia Race for the Cure