Update

Wow! I haven't blogged in a while, but at last I am blogging instead of lying in bed, that's commitment! Ever since I signed up with team in training my biggest fear and concern was fundraising. I didn't know if I could do it, it really seemed like an impossible task. I'm happy to report I'm gonna destroy my fundraising minimum and decided to raise my goal up to $4000. Now I'll be the first to admit if my parents didn't donate $900 I wouldn't be this far ahead. But what can I say they hate cancer!

I have two fundraising events this weekend and would love your help/support! On Saturday I have a tag day. That's where I stand outside of the LCBO at Eglinton and Laird and ask people for money. I'm not sure how it will go but I need people to help me! I can't/don't want to do it alone! On Sunday I'm having a loose change party, I'm not sure if anyone will show up, even my husband RSVP'ed maybe, but maybe a person or two will show up. I'd love to show off my condo and amazing roof top patio, so hit me up if you want the details!

On Saturday I went out for a morning run and ran 21km. I'm shocked, it wasn't hard, it wasn't difficult, it was nice. I am shocked to say I actually enjoyed it. I may be a runner....

That's all for now, but I hope to see you on the weekend!

Thanks, as always for your support!

Stephanie

Jack Layton: A Remarkable Man

Today Canada lost a remarkable man. Where we may not have the same views or agree on policies, one thing we can all agree on is Jack Layton changed the face of Canadian politics. He lead with passion and integrity. I'd like to share part of his final letter.

To other Canadians who are on journeys to defeat cancer and to live their lives, I say this: please don’t be discouraged that my own journey hasn’t gone as well as I had hoped. You must not lose your own hope. Treatments and therapies have never been better in the face of this disease. You have every reason to be optimistic, determined, and focused on the future. My only other advice is to cherish every moment with those you love at every stage of your journey, as I have done this summer.

My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.

All my very best,

Jack Layton

I'm $433.78 away from my fundraising goal!!

Thanks as always for your support.

Stephanie

Mid Summer Night Run

This was a really busy weekend for me. I was volunteering with Can Fit Pro at their annual fitness professional conference and I also ran my first 15km race. I'm exhausted!! I'm also up to $2900 in fundraising, which means $600 left to go. If you haven't sponsored me yet and were thinking about it, now's the time!!

I learned at a lot at the conference and really need to start following my passion. I have a couple of ideas I'm thinking about, I just have to believe in myself and go for it. I've never seen so many fit people in one room ever it was great! Also Richard Simmons was there and did a work out, I have video I should post it on you tube. Patrick House from the Biggest Loser was also there. I did a bosu ball, and trx work shop all before running the 15 km race... crazy!

The mid summer night race was hot, humid and hard, but I have a new personal best 1 hour and 23 minutes. I ran with my aunt Cathie, she pushes me and I LOVE running with her. I was wearing my team in training shirt, and had soo many people cheer me on with "go team!" most of them being fellow runners. My marathon running aunt was surprised how many people cheered go team, she thought it was great!

Here are some pictures from the race!

You can check out more photos here!

Thanks as always for your support!

Stephanie

Sunday Update and GTS

First of all I want to say Saturday I ran 17km, it's the furthest I've ever run!!! What an accomplishment! I went to the group training session with team in training. I thought I'd be super late because the subway wasn't working, but the ttc was super organized and the transfer from the subway to shuttle bus was seamless! The run was a great route through the belt line, a park and even the cemetery. The great part is having people to run with who haven't ever run 17km and completing it together. Let me tell you that was an amazing feeling! I rewarded myself with a freshly squeezed juice, it was awesome!

Now onto the part that terrifies me... the fundraising. I have committed to raising at least $3500 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. If I don't hit $3500 by end of day September 8th, then the remainder will be charged to my Visa. I'm not going to lie this is terrifying to me. My hours are being cut again at work, conveniently on September 12th so I don't have the extra money to pay off that visa bill, so I need to get serious and really buckle down and call the people who said they will sponsor me.

This brings me to my next challenge I need to raise $40 a day for the next 25 days to bring me up to my fundraising minimum. Please help me with this. If you were thinking of sponsoring but haven't yet please do! Please also share this with family, friends, co-workers, strangers on the street.. EVERYONE!!

Thanks as always for your support!

Stephanie

Where does the Money Go?

You here a lot about charities spending most of their donations in administration costs. Team in training is not like that. 75% of what you donate goes right to research and patient services. That money is not wasted either, I want to share another good news discovery!

This article can be found here

Breakthrough’ method rids patients of advanced cancer

In what is being hailed as a potential cancer breakthrough, three men suffering late-stage leukemia have been cured using their own, genetically reprogrammed immune systems.

The technique transforms blood-borne T-cells into “serial killers” that hunt down and obliterate cancer cells, leaving healthy tissue unharmed, according to a pair of studies published simultaneously in two prominent journals.

“I’m getting goosebumps,” says University of Pennsylvania pathologist Michael Kalos, lead author of one of the studies.

“The promise of this is profound. If this repeats in more patients . . . it shows that we can, with amazing effectiveness, blow away cancer cells,” Kalos said in an interview.

Two studies describing the process were released Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine and Science Translational Medicine.

“For the field of immune therapy it’s a really exciting advance,” says Pamela Ohashi, head of immune therapy at the Ontario Cancer Institute.

“It actually provides a new way to manipulate the immune system,” Ohashi says.

Although it takes in only three patients, Ohashi says the results presented were so robust they should send excitement throughout her field.

Kalos explains that the technique works much like a vaccine, training the immune system to target cancer cells, just as inoculations coax it to fight off viruses.

To do this, researchers isolated immunological T-cells from the blood of the three leukemia patients and genetically reprogrammed them using a virus vector that inserted a new gene into their DNA.

This gene coaxed the T-cells to create an antibody — known as chimeric antigen receptor or CAR — that would specifically target structures on the surface of cancer cells.

The newly armed T-cells were then injected back into the respective patients where they sought out and bound themselves to the cancer cells and killed them.

More importantly, however, the reprogrammed hunters caused other T-cells to multiply each time they attacked, creating more killers with each slain cancer cell.

“Within three weeks the tumours had been blown away, in a way that was much more violent than we ever expected,” Dr. Carl June, a senior study author, said in a statement.

“In addition to an extensive capacity for self-replication the infused T-cells are serial killers. On average each infused T-cell led to the killing of thousands of tumour cells,” said June, a University of Pennsylvania pathologist.

It’s estimated the scant number of T-cells originally injected into the patients killed more than two pounds of tumour cells in each of the men, whose blood and bone marrow were replete with cancer.

After a year, microscopic analysis of their blood could find no trace of cancerous cells, Kalos says.

“I am still trying to grasp the enormity of what I am part of and of what the results will mean to countless others with (leukemia) or other forms of cancer,” one of the patients, none of whom were named, said in a written statement.

Kalos says it appears that, like a vaccine, the T-cells also left the patients with a lingering protection, which would reactivate the immunological attack if cancer returned.

“If leukemia does come back, those T-cells (appear to be) armed and ready to eliminate it,” he said.

Each of the men had been suffering from chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a slow-acting form of the blood ailment that can linger for years before radical therapies like marrow transplants become necessary.

But Kalos says there is no reason to think the killer T-cell therapy would not work on more lethal “hard tumour” cancers like breast, prostate or lung.

He says each type of cancer cell has unique surface structures that T-cells could be similarly reprogrammed to hone in on.

“You can target prostate cancer, for example, by targeting any of the surface molecules that have been shown to be present on prostate cancer,” Kalos says.

Researchers have attempted to use modified T-cells to fight cancer in several previous trials, but always with lacklustre results.

Kalos says he does not know why his team’s attempt appears to have worked, but he suspects the unique lentivirus used to insert the modifying genes played a role.

“This seems to be a novel approach to harnessing the power of the patient’s own immune system to battle Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) and perhaps other related leukemias,” says Dr Michael Wosnick, head of research with the Canadian Cancer Society.

“Although the initial study was limited to 3 patients, this may pave the way for better treatments of these diseases, and that is of course what we all want to see,” he said via email.

The researchers could only treat three patients because they ran out of the virus, which was derived from HIV.

Kalos says the team has managed to acquire more of the virus — which cost $250,000 for the first three treatments — and will begin new trials in the coming months.

What a breakthrough!

Thanks as always for your support!

Stephanie

Run as though your life depends on it

I love this video. Although it's not not for team in training, it's a great reminder of the good the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society does.

Michael C. Hall says in the video "Walk as though your life depended on it because somebody's does" I'd love to change that quote to "run as though your life depended on it because somebody's does" Although my t-shirt slogan would be shortened to "I run because life's depend on it"

Enjoy the video!



Thanks as always for your support,

Stephanie

Amazing E-mail

I want to share with you an amazing e-mail I received from my cousin Alex!

Hello Team DK!

Some of you may be wondering why there’s a green pail on my desk with a sign, “Spare Change for Stephie” on it. Maybe you haven’t noticed. Either way I’m about to explain it.

My dear cousin Stephanie has been training all summer to run a Half Marathon this fall with Team in Training. Team in Training are an organization who sign you up for a race and help you with your training…in exchange you raise a shitton of money for them, with all money going to fight blood cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma. Stephanie’s mother in law has been battling lymphoma for years and she figures if Lynne can do that, she can totally train for and run a half marathon.

Stephie’s committed to raising $3500. She’s at 70% of her goal right now. My goal is to raise $100 for her by the time I see her on Saturday. I’d love to present her with a big ol’ bucket of change.

So stop by my desk and empty your pockets. For every coin you drop in you can shoot me with Spiderman’s Web or get a free hug.

Oh, and I’m matching donations (up to $100) so if you drop a loonie in my bucket, that’s actually a toonie.

Love you all.

Alex.

xoxo

Anyone else want to make my day, week, month?

Thanks as always for your support!

Stephanie

Saturday Group Training Session

Anyone who knows me knows I'm not a morning person. I hate the mornings and am usually pretty grumpy in the mornings. I don't really snap out of mornings until around 11am, or a couple of coffees! So joining team in training morning run sessions is not an easy thing for me. They start at 7:30am... on a Saturday... I don't even wake up that early for work. Now I had been working the past several Saturdays but now that I don't work Saturdays I have to drag my butt out of bed and go.

This morning I set my alarm to go off at 6:25am, when it went off I set it to snooze until 6:35. Then I got out of bed and said if it's raining I'm staying home, but the sun was shining. I got ready ate breakfast and left. I got outside and had forgotten my coffee so I went back to get it. Then I headed out to wait for the streetcar.

Now I was wearing my team in training shirt, my fuel belt and an amazingly stylish hat. A guy came up to me on the streetcar to ask if I was running with the group today. So we walked down to the park together and then got flagged down by another girl looking for where the group was meeting. You're never alone when you're in your team in training shirt!

The run was nice, an area of the city I've never been to. Not a lot to see, but flat and no lights. A nice easy early morning 11km run!

Here's a photo I took during the run

Maybe when I'm done training I'll become a runtographer. Just go for runs around the city taking pictures, much like runners at the Toronto Zoo run!

After coming home from the group training session I grabbed some food, changed my socks and headed to the gym. I did upper body weights and then a yoga class. I do feel sorry for people at the gym, I'm pretty sure I smelled. Oh well that's the smell of kicking cancer!

What a morning! Now on to fill out my recommitment papers for my race!

Thanks as always for your support!

Stephanie

Loose Change Adds Up!

As I had mentioned earlier my wonderful cousin had offered to host a fundraiser for me to help kick blood cancers. She is going to be shameless and ask people for change, because as you know loose change can really add up! She's going to be continuing all next week and hopes to help add $100 to my fundraising total!

After hearing about this I threw out a challenge to have family and friends to ask people for loose change to help add towards my fundraising total. For the month of August I would like anyone who can to add a coin jar to their desk at work to please do so. Or if you're able to ask friends, and family for loose change that would be awesome too!

I am offering a prize for whoever can bring in the most money from loose change and let me tell you it will be epic, well maybe not epic but not lame I promise! But you better get started I hear Alex is already up to $15!!

So get started, ask family, friends, co-worker, strangers on the subway and help me with the last $1000 of my fundraising mission.

Together we can do it!

Thanks as always for your support!

Stephanie

Great Article

Hey guys, I know I haven't blogged lately, but I wanted to share this wonderful article. Keep the donations coming so that there's more good news like this!

Scientists at the BC Cancer Agency (BCCA), including several from Simon Fraser University, have uncovered information that could help oncologists prevent Canada’s fifth most common cancer from even gaining a foothold in people.

Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) affects 7,700 Canadians. In B.C. alone, more than a thousand people are expected to be diagnosed with the disease this year.

A team of 50 BCCA scientists discovered 109 genes with recurring mutations while sequencing the whole genomes of more than 100 diffuse large B-cell lymphoma tumours. They identified 26 of the repeatedly mutated genes as contributors to NHL based on their mutation patterns.

Prior to this study, no one knew that more than two-thirds of the newly identified mutated genes were linked to lymphoma.

The journal Nature has published online this massive cancer-sequencing study, which flags two of the newly discovered lymphoma-related genes as being particularly noteworthy. It highlighted MLL2 as potentially the most commonly mutated gene in NHL as it is mutated in 89 per cent of Follicular lymphoma patients.

The study suggests mutations that inactivate MLL2, which normally appears to function as a tumour suppressor gene, enables cancer cells to grow rapidly, despite the body’s regulatory mechanisms.

A second novel gene discovery, MEF2B, bears a so-called hot spot mutation pattern reminiscent of oncogenes, another class of cancer genes.

“The mutated genes discovered should enable the design of new tests to recognize subtypes of lymphoma,” explains Angela Brooks-Wilson, one of the BCCA scientists on this study. Also an associate professor of biomedical physiology and kinesiology at SFU, Brooks-Wilson adds: “The findings may help us predict how individual lymphoma tumours will react to different treatments.”

Medical oncologists hope the newly discovered treasure trove of genetic information will advance clinical and research collaboration on preventing the growth of NHL.

“This wealth of new genetic clues will help us create new drugs and identify existing ones that can inhibit these mutant genes,” says Steven Jones, a professor of molecular biology and biochemistry (MBB) at SFU. “The pattern of mutations discovered may become ideal targets for existing therapies.”

Ryan Morin, a researcher at the BC Cancer Agency, is the first author of this study. Among the other three BCAA scientists involved who teach and conduct research in MBB at SFU are: Rob Holt, Martin Hirst and the study’s leader Marco Marra.

As always, thanks for your support!

Stephanie

The Week In Review

I signed up for dailymile.com, as a way to track my running. I also like that other runners comment on my runs and give me encouragement. This past week has been a good running week. I've run five times this week, and wanted to share my daily mile running stats with you!

Total Distance (mi)
24.51

Total Calories
3193

Total Time
04:07

Workouts
5

Pretty awesome if you ask me! This week I plan to go to the gym, do hill training, bootcamp, yoga and of course a couple of runs!

As always thanks for your support and donations, I can't do this without you!

Stephanie