My Story
weeks. Most donations were $5-250. This money came from your pockets. To me that demonstrated again, the power of people. Regular people. You- and-I kind of people. THE SPEECH
During his speech, Mr. Armstrong stated that the highlight of his trip was the Duel in the Pool. As I said earlier it was not because of the race. He explained that his and my paths crossed on Twitter and because of that we not only raised all this money, but we are expanding Teens Living With Cancer to Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, filling a much-needed hole in what I consider to be the forgotten age group of cancer victims (age 13-19). He, like we were, was astounded at the power of social media. How it has shrunk the world and connected us all. He gave me one of the highest compliments I have ever been given. His words have had me in tears most of the day. He said that I was authentic and that I was passionate about Teens Living With Cancer. My initial reaction was to disagree, but I understand that there are
times when a thank you is appropriate. I struggle with being called a hero. I struggle with being called an inspiration. When people say something like that I in- terpret it to mean WE. The Teens. The teens are the heroes and they are the inspiration. I didn’t do anything inspirational or heroic. They did. They stared down the barrel of the gun we call cancer. They fought the fight, they survived.
A young lady asked him what his greatest accomplishments were. He said father, cancer crusader/Livestrong and cycling. It was important to him to communicate that while he was grateful for what cycling has done for him and given him. His priorities have shifted, his goals have changed. THE TEENS
At the end of the speech they rolled the film of the Duel in the Pool, although Mr. Armstrong had already revealed the winner on Twitter. When it came to the part of the video that pictures of Melissa were shown (Lauren and Doug’s daughter, who died at age 19 and inspired Melissa’s Living Legacy) I watched as her
father looked down, and her mother put her face in her hands. They were sitting in front of my father and me. In front of 4,500 people her story was told, and how Teens Living With Cancer was born and where it is going was explained. The teens sitting around us all looked at one another. One turned around and looked at me. This was the defining mo- ment of this journey, at least for me. We are not a big corporate foundation. Some places have $100K to use to organize a fun- draiser. I am a volunteer, this is Lauren and Leah. Melissa’s father and brother made the awards, her brother did all the website design and Duel in the Pool logos. Lauren and Leah worked tirelessly for five weeks for this endeavor. We are grassroots; like real grassroots. This event and Mr. Arm- strong helped to shine a spotlight on this foundation and the programs we can of- fer through Teens Living With Cancer. That was their moment. That was our moment. It was like, wow, we have this voice. For more information on
Teens Living With Cancer, visit
www.teenslivingwithcancer.org.
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