Hi Guys
i remember blogging a couple of days ago about Kelli who participated in a walk in the USA to remember her dad. She was so touched by Eli's story that she walked for him as well! I have attached the gorgeous email she sent pete and i a couple of days ago including some photos.
It bought tears to my eyes...good luck and have some tissues handy!
Pete and Jodie,
Hi, we have never met but I feel like I know you and little Eli. What an honor to walk for Eli, I know he and my father were looking down on me and carried me across the finish line. On October 18,2009 the Nike Womens Marathon raised 14 million dollars for the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society. It was an amazing experience.
I looked at your blog(Dannika sent me the link), it was amazing to me how "connected" we are. I loved the superman picture of Eli. When my father was in the hospital we called him Superman. He could barely speak and they came in to prepare him for his first of MANY transfusions and they asked him his name..a little whisper came out and he said "superman". Also, I was amazed that the Melon Garden fence was completed on September 13th. That was my fathers birthday and on September 13,2009 I had a memorial golf tournment in honor of my father and raised $1600.00 for LLS.
We lost my Dad on July 28,2008. He went to hospital on July 22, on July 26th we were told he had lymphoma and he lost his battle on the 28th. He had been sick at home for about 4 weeks before going to hospital but everytime he went to the dr. said he had bronchitis and put him on more antibiotics. By the time they admitted him to hospital he had full blown CMV and was basiclly bleeding to death. I miss him everyday and joining Team in Training has helped me to do something productive with my anger. I was so mad at Cancer and knew I had to do something about it. I plan on doing many more marathons and raising money and awareness of this terrible disease.(this was my first marathon). My goal was 6 hours(I'm a walker), one hour for each day my Daddy was in hospital. My final time was 5:59:04.
I will be going today to put pictures on CD and will get them to you ASAP. Dannika is an amazing woman and I feel blessed to have met her on the plane.
God bless!
Kelli Zook
1) Golden Gate Bridge(my first time to San Francisco so I had to get a picture)
Me pointing to my name on the side of Nike Town(all 22,000 participants names were listed) and that is a bracelet with Eli's name on it that I'm wearing.
3) Team In Training inspirational dinner, night before marathon. There were 5,000 TNT participants there. It was AMAZING!!
4) Our moment of silence before we headed to the starting line at 6:30am. Before each training session we would have a moment of silence to "remember the reason". I must say that moment of silence was not so silent. We were all sobbing! It was a very bitter-sweet moment. We had all worked very hard to get there but it makes us sad to think why it is we have to keep raising more money and awareness.
5) Me at mile 16. I think I had just said something like "only 10 to go"In the picture at mile 16 you will notice a green ribbon above my heart, it has my Dad and Eli's name on it.
6) Me and the rest of my teammates from Portland, Oregon just before the start of the marathon.
7) Me with 2 of my teammates at the finish line
8) just a random picture on the course.
Thank for all you do for LLS and Childrens Charities. What an amazing thing you are doing. I have shared the link to Eli's blog with my teammates and I know many have visited it.
Take care,
Kelli
Wow...what a bloody ripper! Thanks so much to Kelli and all her team mates for undertaking such a massive walk! Well done to all of you - from all of us here in Australia!
Will try and attach some more pics over the next few days of Queenscliff...and i also have the most wonderful poem which was sent to me by Margaret from Challenge.
Enjoy your evening and well done again to Kelli and crew!
luv and hugs
the simpsons
xox
No comments:
Post a Comment