Look Past the Smiles to the Purpose

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For the last 3 years I have participated as a part of the Affiliate Marketers Give Back team in the Avon 39 Walk to End Breast Cancer. 

Each year you see me posting happy, smiling pictures at the start line, the finish line, the mile markers, and even the medic tent. I share my journey via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and text messages. It looks like I am having a great time, loving every minute of it. 

That’s part of the story….but certainly not all of it. 

I don’t participate in the walk because it’s fun. While I enjoy my time with my teammates, I’m not going to lie. It is hard. For every picture you see of me smiling, there was a time when I was crying because: 

• I saw a walker with his mom’s picture pinned to his back and he told me how many years ago he lost her to breast cancer.
• My blisters were so bad that I was bleeding through my socks.
• 5 20-something women were all walking in front of me with the same name pinned to their backs. When the crowd parted, I saw the named woman (also only in her 20s) walking in the middle of the group.
• My back was so sore I was popping ibuprofen like candy and layering on hot patches to be able to sleep.
• A group of survivors stood along the parade route thanking me for walking for THEM.
• When it came time to write the names of who I was walking in honor of on my tag, I had too many names to fit on the sheet.
• I had to tell my teammates that one of the friends I walked for the year before lost her life in the interceding year as a result of complications from her breast cancer battle.
• My teammate’s mom, a breast cancer survivor herself, came every single year to greet us at the finish line.
• A group of survivors who walked the walk was honored with a parade into the closing ceremonies and they cheered and laughed and cried and let us celebrate them.

So many tears over those 39.3*3 miles…and more now as I think back on my 3 walks.

Today I’m asking for your support in my next 39 miles. I have to raise $1800 in the next 60 days. It’s amazing how every single donation from $5 to $500 adds up to get me there. $3 from each of my 700 Facebook friends would put me over the top.

If the money isn’t in your budget or you’ve already given for another great cause, like I know so many of my friends do, will you help share this post in the hopes that someone else might help me?

You’ll hear more from me about this over the next 60 days, including more of the reasons that this walk is so important to me. I hope that you can find it in your heart to support me!