Personal Progress:
- Goal:
- $500,000.00
- Achieved:
- $165,546.79
Our goal in establishing the endowment is to provide monetary support for breast cancer pilot research projects. Pilot projects are ideas that are so new and innovative they have yet to attract traditional sources of funding. It is estimated that only 1 in 5 pilot projects get funded. But these are just the ideas that need seed money and may lead to new treatments or even a cure. We hope to change that statistic so no promising idea is left on the shelf due to lack of funding.
Lynn battled breast cancer for 24 years. Sadly, she passed on to the next adventure September 4, 2021 at age 79. She was a 'Cancer Thriver.' She traveled to seven continents and climbed two of the Seven Summits, all after her first cancer diagnosis in 1997. She was a tireless fundraiser for The Hutch, joining many of the climbs with Climb to Fight Breast Cancer. After she couldn't climb anymore due to the effects of chemo, we decided to establish this endowment because we just could not stop until a cure is found. When cancer entered her spinal cord in 2019 (the fifth metastasis) and she couldn't bike, hike or ski anymore, she got an adapted bike and kept biking. She also learned to use an adapted bi-ski so we could keep on skiing, all this at the age of 77. She wasn't giving up. Her favorite t-shirt said, Not Today Cancer. Every time the cancer metastasized, as it did 5 times, or a treatment stopped working, Lynn would say, "I just have to get up, get dressed and give it all I've got everyday so I can stay just a little bit longer." She did that everyday until her last breath. If it is true we die twice, once when we take our last breath and again when the last person whose life we impacted says our name, Lynn will be here for a very long time.
Our hope is that one of the pilot projects supported by our endowment will lead to a cure for breast cancer. Your donation will work within the endowment to provide an annual monetary award to support a pilot project. As the endowment grows, the amount of the annual award will increase and support research, for many years to come.
To honor Lynn's spirit, try something you think you can't do, because Lynn would tell you that you are stronger and braver than you think. Then have some chocolate chocolate chip ice cream donate to the endowment to continue Lynn's fight to find a cure. After that get up, get dressed and give it all you've got to make each day count. As Lynn said often, there are no do-overs in this life.
