Running Down A Dream!

Thank you for joining our team or consider joining us! My goal in participating in the Head and Neck Cancer Alliance (HNCA) Move-A-Thon is to provide as many survivors as I can with the motivation to be as active as they possibly can. I find also hope I will be motivated to move more than I usually do and to ideally persuade you to contribute to my page so we can make progress in our war against this horrific disease.

Before I was diagnosed with neck cancer in 2020, I suffered four strokes and had to go to physical therapy to learn how to get out of bed by myself in 2016. I started keeping track of how far I traveled July 16th, 2016; five miles a day in the high school fieldhouse (to improve my balance). I also walk two great Danes as often as I can and lift weights for two hours a week

I had two cancer surgeries which removed a total of 66 lymph nodes, of course, 25 sessions of radiation therapy, and Covid in 2020. The only days I’ve missed my routine were the Thursday of my BIG surgery, the following three-day weekend, and of course my Covid time. By the end of April, I will have walked jogged, and run six thousand miles since my diagnosis and the good Lord willing, I will pass 14,000 miles, since my fourth stroke, before I turn 75 in August. My specialists say my level of activity explains why I’ve never experienced any side effects and tolerated everything so well (I’ve now gone 20 months cancer free).

My advice? All I can suggest is to do as I did. Start slow; walk to the end of the driveway and back every day for a week, then to your neighbor’s driveway for a week, then to their neighbor’s for a week, to the end of the block, then around the block. Before you know it, you’ll be walking like John Travolta to “Stayin’ Alive” in “Saturday Night Fever.” Eventually, you may work up the nerve to jog, but mostly walk; then to run, while mostly walking. However you decide to move, I pray that it will lead you to the longer, healthier life you and your loved ones desire for you.

Your contribution will assist in furthering HNCA’s mission to improve prevention, detection, treatment, and rehabilitation of oral, head, and neck cancer through public awareness, research, advocacy, and survivorship. This is a very important mission for me as I have seen first hand the unselfish sharing of survivors, caretakers and families working to make life better for us all.

Move-a-Thon is using Strava to track our activities, so I ask that you consider a challenge (approximately $20 dollars for every dime, more if I’m highly motivated) and/or a gift to assist in furthering the HNCA mission by checking out this page.

Even better, let me know if you’d like to join my team.

Thank you very much; every dollar counts and gets us closer to our goal.

Now, LET'S GET MOVING!

Dave