Celebrated Charity Spotlight: Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

Jennifer Ray is running the Dopey Challenge at the 2022 Walt Disney World® Marathon Weekend. Hear Jennifer’s motivation for running with Team In Training.

I first started running in 2007 as my way to "do something" after my brother was diagnosed with cancer. It was in 2009 when I found Team In Training and ran my first, of several, events with the Team. This organization allows me to give back in a meaningful way while completing events in memory of my loved ones and I can't thank TNT enough. I joined TNT to raise money and advocate for a cure. I have seen where the research being done by LLS is helping so many other types of cancer as well.

I was ten years old when my mother pulled me into the dining room of our home and said three words that would forever change the course of my life...I...have...cancer. Over the next two years my family and I would learn a whole new vocabulary, one that no adult, no child, should ever have to learn. Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, chemotherapy, radiation, remission, relapse, bankruptcy, repossession, aggressive, persistent... It was on Christmas night that my mother lost her two-year battle to cancer leaving behind her husband of 21 years, her 18-year-old son, her 16-year-old son, and me, her 12-year-old daughter.

Jump forward to December 11, 2006. I stood in a hospital room hearing a vocabulary I had hoped to God I would never hear again in my life. Stage 3C colon cancer, chemotherapy, persistent, aggressive. Eighteen months I held my brother Chris's hand through every oncology appointment, chemotherapy treatment, and the search for a suitable clinical trial when everything else failed. It was on June 27, 2008 that Chris joined my mom. He was 35 years old. On that day I didn't just lose my big brother, I have forever lost my best friend. The grief was too much for my father and through the years he stopped taking his diabetes medication and it was on May 10, 2013 when the diabetes, heart disease, and untreated lung cancer took my father from this world also.

Through all of it my Godparents took their role in my life well beyond standing up for me at my christening and have truly been a main stead in my life. It was in June that my godfather was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. This was his second bout of cancer, having already survived prostate cancer. But this one was different. He fought like hell, however on August 25, 2019, he too lost his battle to cancer.

I initially signed up in early 2020 for the 2021 Dopey Challenge, having no idea how the world would change, how MY world would change. Even before COVID deferred the 2021 event, I had to defer based on my own cancer diagnosis. The remainder of 2020 was spent between oncology appointments, surgery, treatments, more oncology appointments, and simply holding my husband's hand as we made it through this journey together. It was on January 6, 2021 that I rang the bell - the end of my treatments, my oncologist saying those amazing words we had never heard in my family before...CURED! One month later my husband was sick with what we would later find out was COVID. He lost his battle to COVID before the end of February and I have been figuring out how to rebuild my life every day since. Some days I succeed, other days I know that I will simply try again tomorrow.

I started off planning to run this event in memory of my godfather, my father, my mother, and my brother Chris - so that no other family has to know the agonizing loss of a loved one to cancer the way my family has. Now, I will run in memory of my husband too as my forever cheerleader, my greatest supporter, my best friend, and the love of my life.

And so I run because it is the something that I can do. I run to raise money for cancer research. I run to make others aware of their responsibility to their own health. I run so no other family will have to go through what my family has gone through. I run to remember. I run for me. I run because I will not refuse to do the something that I can. I run for HOPE!

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As the global leader in the fight against blood cancer, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) is working tirelessly to find cures and provide more support for blood cancer patients and families than any organization in the world.

Since 1949, LLS has invested more than $1.3 billion in cancer research, leading to breakthroughs in immunotherapy, genomics and personalized medicine that are improving and saving the lives of patients. The organization has helped advance 85% of the blood cancer treatment options approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration since 2017 alone.

LLS is the leading source of free blood cancer information, education, and support for patients, survivors, caregivers, families, and healthcare professionals. LLS’s robust Patient Financial Assistance Programs help patients with cost-of-care obstacles in order to access the best, most timely treatment. And a fierce advocate for healthcare reforms that will reduce out-of-pocket costs and systemic inequities, ultimately making care available to all patients.

To learn more about Team In Training’s support of LLS visit us here.