I am walking in the 2023 Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund Walk as part of Dana Farber’s Team IBC because the Inflammatory Breast Cancer Team at Dana Farber saved my life. I was diagnosed with Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC) in April of 2019 and sought treatment at Dana Farber, home to one of the few dedicated IBC research and treatment centers in the world. I quickly started treatment – chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation over 19 long months.
I am walking because 100% of the money Team IBC and I raise goes directly to Dana Farber’s Inflammatory Breast Cancer Program. The program provides dedicated IBC research and incredibly compassionate IBC care. This research and patient care directly benefited me and will continue to benefit me and all the patients that come after me for years to come.
I am walking because the team at Dana Farber is working on multiple research projects and clinical trials that will benefit both current and future patients at Dana Farber and throughout the world. IBC is a rare and aggressive form of breast cancer accounting for only about 3% of all breast cancer cases, but over 10% of breast cancer related deaths. Because the patient population is so small, funding for IBC related research is extremely limited. Of the over 35,000 breast cancer related studies completed in the last 20 years, only 112 of those, or approximately 0.32%, were dedicated to IBC research.
I am walking because my team at Dana Farber has taken amazing care of me over the last four years. Thanks to their care, I have returned to most of my normal activities, including my passions of scuba diving and underwater photography.
I am walking because despite the improvements to cancer care over the years and especially with IBC, survivorship is still shorter for some of us than it is for others. My hope is that research funded through the Jimmy Fund Walk will help make survivorship last a little bit longer and get a little bit easier for all of us.
Thank you for supporting my Jimmy Fund Walk fundraising efforts. Together, we can defy IBC!
