Click THIS LINK to donate online to TEAM DOCTAH D! It’s easy to do and every penny helps. Whether you can give $5, $50 or $500, we appreciate your generosity & love in making this gift. 

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I am very blessed to have a very wonderful circle of friends in my life. One of my besties is Denise Rivers, and today, I want to introduce all of y’all to her. I know you will love her just as much as I do.

Denise and her husband and their supercute daughter live one street over from Casa Hickju, and they are like family to us. Among all the other ways I love and appreciate Denise, who happens to be a doctor, I will NEVER, EVER forget how I called her in hysterics on the way to the hospital when I’d just heard that Henry had been taken there by ambulance. I told her that I had no real idea what had happened, but that I thought Henry was in the ER at her hospital, and I was terrified.

By the time my friend Mike pulled up at the ER doors to drop me off and go park his car, Denise was already in the ER, working with the treating physician, residents and nurses to save Henry’s life. For the next 38 days of his hospitalization, she was a rock for me, and she went FAR above and beyond to help me navigate and understand the intensive care medical system in which we had suddenly found ourselves.

After Henry died, Denise was the one who made sure I had a dress to wear to his funeral (I was 7 months pregnant, huge, and hysterical with grief,  so not only did nothing fit, I couldn’t get out of bed or even speak clearly enough to possibly go to a store for something to wear.) When I gave birth to G three weeks later – six weeks before my due date – Denise made sure that I had nursing nightgowns, bras and even a new bathrobe waiting at home when we left the hospital.

I could go on and on and on and ON about how Denise takes care of other people – her patients, her family, her friends. She is truly a remarkable human being and I am kind of in awe of all she does.

And now, she’s upped the ante in awesomeness by becoming actively involved in the Susan G. Komen SIXTY MILE (yes, you read that right) Three Day Walk for the Cure.

I recently told Denise that I wanted to harness the power of Team Mamapundit to help her actual team meet their fundraising goal of $6900. So in the next month or so, leading up to the event, which takes place in October, I will be blogging regularly here at Mamapundit about Denise’s training and fundraising efforts. I will also be asking those of you who have been touched by breast cancer in your own lives to share your stories, and I will be sharing my own. Sadly, we all have one when it comes to this terrible disease.

If we work together, I think this community that we have goin’ on here at the blog can give Dr. D. (that’s what my kids call Denise) some real momentum as she works toward her goal. I want her to cross that finish line in Philadelphia – her hometown and where the event will take place – smiling, both because she just accomplished an amazing athletic feat, and also because she knows she hit the mark with the money she raised.

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Denise, crossing the finish line in the half-marathon she completed last year for the first time.

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So like I said, today, I want to introduce all of you to Dr. D. for the first time, and let you know how you can get involved with her big effort. And you will definitely be reading more in the weeks ahead.  For this kickoff “Dr. D. Walks for the Cure” blog post at Mamapundit, I asked Denise to share in her own words why she decided to do take on a 60 mile challenge.

So without further ado, let me introduce my amazing, inspiring Phriend from Philly, Dr. Denise Rivers.

Take it away, Doctah D!

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As a physician, I understand the impact cancer has on a patient, a family, a life. That’s why my friend Nat and I did our first Komen event together five years ago; together, she ran and I walked the Komen 5k in Philly.

And I cried for the entire 3.2 miles.

Seeing the babies holding signs in memory of their mommies hit me hard. Seeing bald women with scarves – and some without – and husbands holding up their wives, sons holding up their mothers, mothers holding up their daughters….

And the men. The brave men were there. Some were there to support the women they loved, but others were there as breast cancer survivors themselves. They wanted to let people know that this disease affects them too

From that point on, I felt moved to do something. But I just never did. In those five years since that first walk, my mother has been diagnosed and is now a survivor. I have multiple friends and beloved patients, all of whom humble me with their strength in fighting this battle. And it is a battle. Cancer sucks. But I still never got motivated to actually DO SOMETHING.

This past winter, that changed. While training for the Knoxville half-marathon, I stumbled across information online about the Komen 3 Day Walk for the Cure. I remembered reading about it 5 years ago and thinking, “No way! Sixty miles?!” Then I thought back to that day five years ago. I remembered the faces of those babies, and those brave, bald women walking beside me, their bodies now scarred by the disease but their hopes and spirits brave and light. I remembered seeing those husbands, sons and mothers all walking beside their loved ones. I wanted to finally do the “something” I’d been putting off.

And I knew that I could walk. I may not be able to cure cancer, but I thought to myself, “I can walk 60 miles in 3 days – that I can do.”

I signed up that very day, and then called the two friends who have now become my Komen teammates: Nat (she’s the one in the picture with me below, wearing those sexy tube sock arm warmers!) and Margo. The three of us have made a pact to DO THIS THING!

Yes, 60 miles is daunting. TRAINING for 60 miles is daunting. But every time I want to blow off a workout, I remember all those survivors, and I think about how they never had a choice to blow off their chemo or radiation or mastectomies. And I cannot wipe the faces of those babies from my heart.

So Nat, Margo and I are training for that 60 mile journey we’ll be making in October. We’re working hard – both to get in physical shape to do the three days, and also to raise sponsorship money for our team’s goal of $6900.

Tomorrow (Saturday, September 3), if you live in Knoxville, please come out and visit me visit me at Market Square Farmers Market between 9am-1pm, and drop some cash in my fundraising bucket. Or just come by to say hi, or to tell me how breast cancer has touched your own life, or even just to laugh at how silly I look in pink (it is SOOOO not my color, but I will be rockin’ it!)

HOPE TO SEE YOU TOMORROW! And thanks for your support.

-Denise

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Click THIS LINK to donate online to TEAM DOCTAH D! It’s easy to do and every penny helps. Whether you can give $5, $50 or $500, we appreciate your generosity & love in making this gift.