Walker Wednesday: Meet Joyce

Team Captain Joyce Rizer is a veteran of the 3-Day.  She did her first event last year in Washington D.C. and is proud to say she walked ALL 60+ miles!  The story of how she came to do her first 3-Day is posted here.

The story of how she came to do her 2nd 3-Day is sprinkled throughout this blog.  She's the team blogger.  And she hates writing in 3rd person, so that's gonna stop right now.

Last year, I shaved my head and raised pretty much all of the money I needed to meet my minimum fundraising requirement.  This year, it's going a lot slower.  But I'll get there!

When I look back over my story for last year's event one particular line makes me sad:  "Unlike so many who do the 3-Day, I haven't been personally affected by this disease."

I now have a dear friend who's currently in the fight.  She was diagnosed in April with IBC - Inflammatory Breast Cancer.  The most aggressive kind.   She's counting her time left on earth in days now.  The cancer is winning, and I know my friend will have lost her battle by the time we get to Atlanta.

At some point I hope to be able to blog more about the conversations we've had about breast cancer.  But for now I'll share something she said that keeps playing over and over in my head:  "This is 2011.  It's completely ridiculous that people are dying from this disease."  For all the research that's been done, the advances that have been made, there is still SO much work left to do. 

Sorry... I got off on a little tangent.  (Anything to stop talking about me!)  But here we go:  I'm a native of Central Illinois, a graduate of Illinois State, an employee of Sirius XM Radio, a life-long Methodist, a lover of country music, a really lousy gardener, a wife, daughter, mother, grandmother, aunt, sister, niece, mentor, friend, neighbor, and 3-Day walker.

And this year, I'm a Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure Ambassador!