Mission Moment - Tim

I thought it would be appropriate for my next post if I focused on what we at Team in Training call a Mission Moment. Mission Moments are the reasons behind why we run marathons and why we fundraise for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. They are usually stories about patients or someone on the team's personal connection to cancer.

Today's Mission Moment is about my good friend Tim.

Tim and I became insta-friends on a recent kayaking trip in Wisconsin. It's hard to find someone else out there that you can joke with about things like nurses forgetting to undo turnicates before pulling out your blood draw, or going out in public when you're bald. But I think that, combined with a shared love for Dave Matthews Band (and IV Benadryl), is how Tim has crept his way into my family...even going on vacation with them without me!

Only 1 year ago, when Tim was a freshman in college he was diagnosed with APL, a rare form of Leukemia. In a condition that without treatment would have killed Tim in less that 2 weeks, he got on the first plane home to LA and within hours was a hospital inpatient at UCLA, and didn't leave for nearly 3 months. The next 6 months consisted of chemotherapy and radiation treatments, followed by a bone marrow transplant that he was lucky enough to have 2 perfect bone marrow matches for in his family (which is almost UNHEARD OF!), and on March 4, 2008 Tim received brand new bone marrow!

On a visit to Seattle last September, Tim told his story to my Team in Training fam at practice. You can read it for yourself on his blog:

http://www.unidude.blogspot.com/