We have been walking together with my family for 9 years in order to increase awareness and raise money to fund new treatments for blood cancers. What started as a fun walk to support my brother-in-law, now a 10 year NHL survivor, has become a personal battle to find a cure. Now a survivor myself, our team is committed to keep pushing until survivors can live without the fear of the next blood test or CT scan. New drugs have increased long-term survival rates and reduced the harmful and painful side effects of chemotherapy drugs and there has been progress toward targeted therapies, but we have a long way to go. There is still no cure. Federal funding is not enough. We need to raise money to give researchers the means to find better therapies and cures.

This year we are walking to remember our friend, Margery Ablon, who recently lost her battle with melanoma and lymphoma. Though I had heard stories about Marge from her children for years, we finally met after my diagnosis in 2008. We became instant friends and I was motivated throughout my own treatment by her courage, optimism and sense of humor. She walked as a fellow Lymphomaniac at the 2009 LTN walk and she will be in our thoughts as we walk this year as well.

Please help us reach our goal by joining our team and making a donation. Last year, our team surpassed our goal and raised over $135,000. We were proud to receive the honor of being the #2 Friends and Family Team and I was proud to be named the #1 individual fundraiser in the US and Canada. We could not have done it without the overwhelming support of friends, family and co-workers. We have accepted a new challenge this year. In 2010, we are committed to raising $200,000 to cure blood cancers.

Thank you for your support!

If you would like to read more about my NHL diagnosis and story, please read below.

Just one week after the 2008 Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s annual Light the Night Walk, I rushed myself to the ER with intense chest and back pain. It was the middle of the night, and I left my concerned wife, 8 months pregnant at the time, at home with our 2 daughters.

Doctors believed I had a blood clot in my lungs. After a battery of tests, they found a grapefruit-sized tumor in my pelvis which was pressing on an artery and cutting off blood flow in a major vein. Soon after, I was diagnosed with what is most often, an incurable cancer-- Non Hodgkins Lymphoma.

It was a shocking diagnosis and one that was eerily familiar to me and my wife . Julie’s brother, Bobby, was diagnosed nine years earlier with the very same disease. In an instant, our lives had changed forever.

After 6 months of chemotherapy, I am happy to report that I remain in remission. But, my fight is not over. I’ll need regular check-ups and CAT scans to ensure that this disease does not come back. If it does, I will immediately treat it with the most targeted therapy available. So, for me, my brother-in-law, and the thousands of good people who struggle against this life-threatening form of cancer, every dollar put toward finding a cure is vital.

Please look for the Lymphomaniacs on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Lymphomaniacs/145388275474028

To see why this cause is so important, please watch this brief video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs7HMd6_1BI