Before I do anything else here today, I have to thank all the humans, elves, mages, dogs, and cats who contributed to yesterday’s $24 in 24 Hours Challenge for our Walking with Jane Relay For Life Team. There was even a dragon in the group.

After I wrote and posted that letter yesterday I went off to do some painting. When I came back five hours later we had raised  just over $1500–and were close to $2600 by midnight. While I will be writing each of you a personal thank you note, I have to say more publicly that your generosity as a group moved me to tears. Our team total is now nearly triple what it was on Friday.

I won’t know the overall totals until later in the week–but I know the GFR thermometer moved more than a little yesterday.

Today was the Jimmy Fund Marathon Walk Pacesetter Brunch in Boston. Together, we raised about $4400 last year for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute through that event. While that was more than enough to get me invited to breakfast, it did not get me into the top 10 among even first year participants. But it made a big difference for Caring for Carcinoid’s team that moved into the top ten this year. They raised over $35,000. I was among the top fundraisers on the team, thanks to all of you.

And thanks to all of you, we are starting to put Walking with Jane on the NET/CS map. Tomorrow I have a conversation with people at Dana-Farber scheduled to talk about a conference they are running in October on Gastrointestinal Cancers–including NET. According to my source in the development office, Dr. Matthew Kulke–who is one of the major lights in NET/CS research– has seen this site and is impressed with what we are doing here.

Next week I am supposed to get a look at the legal “statement of purpose” and a draft of the corporate by-laws that are the next step in the founding of the Walking with Jane Foundation, Inc. That will allow us to institutionalize what we are trying to do so that, eventually, even if I die or lose my ability to make decisions we will still have this vehicle to carry the fight forward.

Less than a year ago I had just started to think about how to fulfill the vows I had made about fighting this disease. Those thoughts were little more than dreams. No one had started designing-shirts. What I knew about the Relay for Life was that it involved walking around a track–and that there had to be one around here somewhere because one of my students had done a senior project on it. I knew there was a Marathon Walk–but 26 miles seemed like a huge distance–and I had no idea how to sign up for it. And a website–while I liked the idea–was pure fantasy land.

We’ve all learned a lot in the last nine months. But we are still a toddler–albeit a precocious one–who falls down frequently and has trouble forming words most of the time. We have lots more to learn–and much more to do.

But with the help of all of you that toddler may well grow into a substantial force in the battle against cancer in general–and NET in particular.

Thank you.