Luck of the Irish

IN our lives, sometimes people pick a holiday and become its caretaker. Glenn and I have always taken on Christmas time and given an annual party that is now... 28 years running! Patti, my team-mate and great friend and her husband John have adopted Saint Paddy's Day.

It is somewhat fitting since Patti is at least half Irish, and John...well he has the fatal flaw of being English. (I say fatal because after all they did LOSE the war to us!)

They hold their annual event on their houseboat. This year there were around 25-30 people who came and dined on FANTASTIC corned beef (over 21 pounds of it), Irish Soda Bread, Cabbage, Potatoes, Shandies and Irish Whiskey....Plus assorted other foods to delight a leprechauns palate.

I was thinking what last year was like for Patti, she had gotten the diagnosis of Breast Cancer and was in the midst of beginning treatment. It twas a scary time. But, as Irish luck would have it when she had gone to get a mammogram a very astute technician took a closer look at something most techs, and radiologists would have over looked. They caught her her cancer early enough to make the prognosis fantastic. Patti walked with us in the 3 day last year.

She says the support she felt throughout the walk did worlds of good for her as she went through dealing with Cancer. I do have to say it did us all a world of good to feel as if we were doing something about this disease. Now she is walking again, and new people are joining the team. I feel as I hope they will too, we are making a difference in the lives of thousands of women and men, those who have Cancer, those who may get the diagnosis in the future, and the people who love them. And finally we all hope and believe, we are bringing us all closer to a world without Cancer.

It was more than Irish luck that found that Cancer. It was the training and implementation of screening that caught that cancer early. Beware of studies suggesting Mammograms do little good. Beware of recommendations that lessen the focus on education. Keep supporting Team:Are We There Yet?

And to each and every walker out there this one's to you...

"May those that love us, love us.
And those that don’t love us,
May God turn their hearts.
And if he doesn’t turn their hearts,
May he turn their ankles,
So we’ll know them by their limping."

And then there was no more corned beef......