Hala, is currently fighting ovarian cancer and has been for several years and I wanted to give back to her. She is an extraordinary woman and gives so much to others and expects little in return. She comes from a big family whom she is very close with and has a daughter and a son. I truly believe that Hala deserves this more than anybody as she has done so much for myself and others throughout her life. Even when she was going through her chemotherapy and felt sick, she would still have the whole family over for family dinners and would make sure everyone else was okay, not worrying about herself. She is my motivation to run a mini-marathon because if she can go through numerous chemotherapy sessions, then I can push myself in one race to run the farthest I ever have.
Hala's Story
At 41 years old, Hala was told she had fibroids and could have them removed. Her better option was to have a hysterectomy so the fibroids wouldn't come back. So in February of 2006 she went in for a hysterectomy and the doctor found the cancer. On March 31, 2006 she was told she had a race kind of ovarian cancer, stage 3A. They told her it would be cureable with chemotherapy but when she went in for chemo she had an allergic reaction and ended up back in the hospital for a few days. In May she started a new chemo treatment and had to go in for the treatment once a week, 3 weeks out of the month and had 1 week off. She went through all of the treatments until September when she was in remission and would go back every 3 months for a check up for the first 2 years and then every 6 months after that. Three years later in September 2009 the cancer came back. She started chemotherapy again but it wasn't working. A few months later they started her on a different type of chemo and it worked and she had to receive treatments every week. In the summer of 2010 she took a break for her daughter's graduation and then started with the chemo again. The next summer she took another break for her son's graduation. She then started back up with her treatments but she wasn't making progress or getting worse - the cancer was staying stable. In January of 2012 Hala's tumor marker numbers were going up but she did not want to keep going through with the chemotherapy. The chemotherapy made her sick and tired but the family pressured her into going on with the treatments so she could get better. In April of 2012 she started on 2 new drugs and the tumors have been getting smaller and having less activity. Right now she is still undergoing chemotherapy but is only one 1 drug but if this drug doesn't work she will have to be taking 2 different drugs during her treatments. She doesn't know how much longer she will have to have chemotherapy or if the tumors will ever be gone forever, but all we can do is pray that the treatments work and that she can be healthy again.
The above information was given by Hala
How You Can Help
Throughout my training for the race I am going to also collect donations for her so she can use the money towards her medical expenses. 100% of the donations collected will go directly to her. I have opened up a bank account that people can donate money to and am currently working with a company to sell shirts for the cause. Once the shirts come in I will have a link on the blog so people can order them and have them shipped directly to them. I asking that people donate one dollar for every mile that I am running. I am running 13.1 miles so that would be donating $13. If you can't donate that much money, any amount can help. If you can only donate $1 to this cause, that is better than nothing at all, or if you can donate more, I would greatly appreciate it. You can find the donate button via PayPal on the top right corner of my blog
This is such a great cause! My father is battling pancreatic cancer and I've been running with the American Cancer Society to help raise money and awareness. Please keep us posted on your progress! Thoughts and Prayers for your Aunt!
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