✦To raise money and awareness for lung cancer and ultimately, beat lung cancer BIG TIME!

✦My personal experience with lung cancer involved the loss of a dear friend and has led me to this point. In June 2009, just after we finished our junior year of college, my dear childhood friend, Jillian Costello, was diagnosed with lung cancer. It was a scary week in the beginning of the summer of 2009 when she found out. I was across the country, spending the summer in Boston, and didn’t grasp the impact of the diagnosis. Jill lived the next year of her life with the confidence, spirit, faith and drive to make us all believe in miracles.

✦Just one year after diagnosis, Jill passed away. She was 21 at

the time of diagnosis and just 22 when she died. She never

smoked a day in her life and was the picture of health until her

diagnosis. She was the 2010 PAC-10 Women’s Athlete of the

Year and had the brains to match. This was a diagnosis that no

one could have ever predicted, but, as we all found out,

ANYONE can get lung cancer.

✦        Read more about Jill here: Sports Illustrated

✦Jill’s diagnosis and consequent activism opened all of our eyes to the stigma that has kept lung cancer at the same survival rate for the past 40 years. It is also the reason why I am running. Because people need to wake up, we need to commit to lung cancer the same way we committed to breast cancer  and heart disease. Once we do, think of all the daughters, friends, fathers, mothers, teammates, and heroes whose lives will be saved.

✦But what does running have to do with Jill’s cancer? I know that my running isn’t going to cure cancer, but with the help of family and friends (I'm lookin' at you! )  we can spread the word about supporting lung cancer research, we can raise some money, and heck, we can all make Jill proud by accomplishing something way outside the box.  If she can be captain of the Cal crew team, go to nationals, maintain 4.0 at Cal, active in sorority, and be a spokesperson for lung cancer ALL WHILE GOING THROUGH CHEMO, then surely I can run across the country!

✦LUNG CANCER IS THE #1 CANCER KILLER. It kills more people per year than breast, prostate, colon, liver, melanoma and kidney cancers combined!!!

✦The survival rate of lung cancer has not changed in over 40 years.

✦I get fired up just thinking about all of the amazing people that I have met and read about who have been diagnosed. Now is the time for us to come together and commit to making a positive change in the trajectory of lung cancer. We can beat lung cancer BIG TIME if we all raise our voices...and our wallets.