This is Why I'm Walking

Hey everybody! I just wanted to let you know how I’m doing, it’s been a little over a year since I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma and I am doing great!  I had no idea so much could happen in a year.  I guess being diagnosed with cancer at 16 and then becoming a cancer survivor at 17 is an impressive thing to put on college resumes.  I’m back at high school as a junior (round 2), exercising and riding my horse and things finally seem normal. I never got the chance to tell everyone how thankful I am for showing your support through it all, so thank you all!! Everyone helped in their own way whether we knew them or not, and I never would have thought there are so many wonderful and giving people out there. :-)

The Light the Night Walk is in two weeks, and I will be there walking and also sharing my story.  If you want to join us at the walk, or donate, you can go online to this website http://pages.lightthenight.org/wa/SeattleL12/teamkira.  This year our team name will be called Team Kira- “Cancer Must Dash” and we will have a mustache theme!  We will be selling red bracelets this year that will say our team name along with the name of my hospital roommate who passed away in May of this year.  I am walking for Ruby this year.  We were both diagnosed with cancer in August of 2011.  She was a tough fighter about my age and she loved photography, if you go to this website you can see a quick video of her passion for photography http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaFApfOw0GY, or read how she got her Make-A-Wish right before she died http://blog.4culture.org/2012/05/the-hidden-shadows-of-cancer-the-photographs-of-ruby-lhianna-smith.  This reminds us of what we are fighting for, and how not every family gets a happy ending like I did.  Cancer doesn’t discriminate; it is something anyone can get. We have to remember that it’s a word not a sentence, and I am living proof that it’s not a death sentence.  So let’s stop making it seem so serious, because all it is is a stupid disease.  

BRING ON THE MUSTACHES!

-Kira