On the eve of the 27th Komen Philadelphia Race for The Cure, I'm bagging my sleep preparing to stand again with my lifelong friend Ricky Brown, our daughters, family, friends,and fellow advocates to celebrate another year of victories in the battle against breast cancer. It took my friend and our classmate Lori far too young. Ricky and their determined children Adam and Ally moved forward together remarkably and picked up the battle on behalf of Lori. Several years back Ricky, Adam and Ally brought their passion to Susan G. Komen Philadelphia to make even more of a difference. At 3 AM tomorrow morning we will yawn,stretch and join thousands of breast cancer survivors to share stories, successes and work remaining to eradicate breast cancer. Here are Ricky's words from our Facebook group Flobee's Breakfast Club that inspire our team year after year to continue this fight to honor Lori.
The Flobee Story (by Rick Brown):
I have been a little behind this year and it is hard to comprehend that Mother's Day and the Race is upon is this weekend. This page is dedicated to all of the wonderful volunteers, friends and family (you know who you are) that give the most precious commodity they have (Their Time) to our cause.
I wanted to take the time today to share why I do what I do for the cause. In 1996 my life changed forever. Lori (Flobee) was diagnosed with stage 0/1 breast cancer. At the time, we were convinced that she would beat the odds then estimated at a 95% chance of 5 year survival and thus in the cancer world a cure. Unfortunately no one has a crystal ball and two years later she was gone.
Lori fought a hard battle. Chemo, surgeries, and finally an experimental full bone marrow transplant in hopes of not only finding a cure that might benefit herself and our family but maybe finding the cure that would help anyone fighting the disease. One of her biggest fears was what the future might hold for her daughter and so she was in the protocol at Penn when they were doing the gene testing to see if she carried the mutation (she did not).
It was watching her fight so selflessly that instilled in me the desire to always continue that fight not in her memory but in her honor.
I had lost my everything, had two small children then ages 6 & 9 to raise on my own (while I'm an OK Dad I am a lousy Mom) and slowly over time had to rebuild my life. Part of that rebuilding process occurred and continues to occur through my involvement with Susan G. Komen and its Philadelphia Affiliate.
The Mission is a simple one to work until this disease is eradicated and I will spend my time working toward that goal for as long as it takes. When I started 1 in 7 women faced a diagnosis of breast cancer in their lifetime. Twelve years later that number is now 1 in 8 and on top of that new treatment options increase the chances of survival. What started out as a small group of women in pink descending the Art Museum steps on Race Day has become a sea of pink and one day will be an ocean.
In fifteen counties, we dedicate our work to not just helping women live “past” breast cancer… but to helping all people and all generations live WITH it. Whether you’ve taken the journey in your life, or have never been diagnosed, this disease is a reality in our world. Komen Philadelphia’s mission focuses on creating a knowledgeable, supportive, confident and capable community that, in the face of breast cancer, can stand up, unite, fight back, and survive.
We truly believe one day breast cancer will be banished from our world forever.
That being said, like all cancers to date the best chance for survival is still early detection. The majority of the funds raised go towards education and supplying mammograms to women who otherwise could not afford it. While I will eventually get around to begging for a donation at the end of this post right now I'm going to throw out a reminder to GET THAT MAMMOGRAM!
If you have a few dollars to spare to a worthy cause please make a donation or if you would like to give me some of your time I will put that to good use too!
Happy Mother's Day and thank you for reading Flobee's and my story and I hope to see you this Sunday at the race!
Richard Brown
❤
Andy Goldfield
On the eve of the 27th Komen Philadelphia Race for The Cure, I'm bagging my sleep preparing to stand again with my lifelong friend Ricky Brown, our daughters, family, friends,and fellow advocates to celebrate another year of victories in the battle against breast cancer. It took my friend and our classmate Lori far too young. Ricky and their determined children Adam and Ally moved forward together remarkably and picked up the battle on behalf of Lori. Several years back Ricky, Adam and Ally brought their passion to Susan G. Komen Philadelphia to make even more of a difference. At 3 AM tomorrow morning we will yawn,stretch and join thousands of breast cancer survivors to share stories, successes and work remaining to eradicate breast cancer. Here are Ricky's words from our Facebook group Flobee's Breakfast Club that inspire our team year after year to continue this fight to honor Lori.
The Flobee Story (by Rick Brown):
I have been a little behind this year and it is hard to comprehend that Mother's Day and the Race is upon is this weekend. This page is dedicated to all of the wonderful volunteers, friends and family (you know who you are) that give the most precious commodity they have (Their Time) to our cause.
I wanted to take the time today to share why I do what I do for the cause. In 1996 my life changed forever. Lori (Flobee) was diagnosed with stage 0/1 breast cancer. At the time, we were convinced that she would beat the odds then estimated at a 95% chance of 5 year survival and thus in the cancer world a cure. Unfortunately no one has a crystal ball and two years later she was gone.
Lori fought a hard battle. Chemo, surgeries, and finally an experimental full bone marrow transplant in hopes of not only finding a cure that might benefit herself and our family but maybe finding the cure that would help anyone fighting the disease. One of her biggest fears was what the future might hold for her daughter and so she was in the protocol at Penn when they were doing the gene testing to see if she carried the mutation (she did not).
It was watching her fight so selflessly that instilled in me the desire to always continue that fight not in her memory but in her honor.
I had lost my everything, had two small children then ages 6 & 9 to raise on my own (while I'm an OK Dad I am a lousy Mom) and slowly over time had to rebuild my life. Part of that rebuilding process occurred and continues to occur through my involvement with Susan G. Komen and its Philadelphia Affiliate.
The Mission is a simple one to work until this disease is eradicated and I will spend my time working toward that goal for as long as it takes. When I started 1 in 7 women faced a diagnosis of breast cancer in their lifetime. Twelve years later that number is now 1 in 8 and on top of that new treatment options increase the chances of survival. What started out as a small group of women in pink descending the Art Museum steps on Race Day has become a sea of pink and one day will be an ocean.
In fifteen counties, we dedicate our work to not just helping women live “past” breast cancer… but to helping all people and all generations live WITH it. Whether you’ve taken the journey in your life, or have never been diagnosed, this disease is a reality in our world. Komen Philadelphia’s mission focuses on creating a knowledgeable, supportive, confident and capable community that, in the face of breast cancer, can stand up, unite, fight back, and survive.
We truly believe one day breast cancer will be banished from our world forever.
That being said, like all cancers to date the best chance for survival is still early detection. The majority of the funds raised go towards education and supplying mammograms to women who otherwise could not afford it. While I will eventually get around to begging for a donation at the end of this post right now I'm going to throw out a reminder to GET THAT MAMMOGRAM!
If you have a few dollars to spare to a worthy cause please make a donation or if you would like to give me some of your time I will put that to good use too!
Happy Mother's Day and thank you for reading Flobee's and my story and I hope to see you this Sunday at the race!