Nothing Is Incurable

In November of 2011 he broke the news.

Cancer.

More specifically something called "multiple myeloma," a yet-to-be cured form of blood cancer with one of the lowest survival rates of all cancers. Hearts stopped and no one breathed. A few months later the diagnosis was confirmed at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He had smoldering myeloma, a pre-cursor to full blown multiple myeloma.

Since then we, as a family, have decided that the diagnosis was not the end. It was just the beginning. It was the beginning of our efforts to find a cure. It was the beginning of ensuring the grandkids really knew their grandfather. It was the beginning of putting our bodies through countless miles of running or biking or swimming to raise awareness of this disease.

Much of the literature on multiple myeloma refers to it as an "incurable" cancer. But we don't believe that. While multiple myeloma has one of the lowest 5 year survival rates of all cancers, we know of people who have had it for over a decade. We know that it is an exciting time in the quest for a cure.

We know that nothing is incurable.

Since the diagnosis we have started running again and, in some cases, started running period. We have taken up new sports so we can spread the word about the fight against multiple myeloma. We have reassessed priorities and decided that having family close by is one of the best medicines. We created the team ME Against Myeloma to raise money for the research that will eventually save his life. We chose to fight.