Are you ready to take a step towards fighting cancer? If so, then get ready to take some healthy steps this May and June with me at the Relay for Life in Vestal, N.Y. and Wyalusing, Pa.
The goal that I set in back in 2011 to walk in a Relay for Life is about to be fulfilled in 2015. I’ve decided that I do not want to wait until I have lost my goal of taking off 200-250 extra pounds before I complete this long unfinished goal of mine.
Although I still have a long way to go before I’m walking as well as I’d like, I’ve already come a long way. I’m ready to take this first step of facing a goal that will not only help improve my own health, it will help provide funds for the fight against cancer.
Although it’s the fight of one person I care about deeply that inspires these walks, like so many other people at the relay, I will be walking for each and every person I have ever known who has faced cancer and has either won or lost their fight, or is still in that fight.
I could put off this goal to walk in a Relay for Life, since I still have a long way to go in my weight loss journey. However, I don’t want to put it off. I don’t want to sit on the sidelines of my community doing nothing when I know that no matter my current condition, I’m still capable of doing something and making a difference. Not to mention, I can’t think of a better way to get healthy, than doing something that will help others.
I recently started a team for both Relay for Life events on the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life website.
The events the Healthy Steps team is signed up for are the Western Broome County Relay for Life to be held on May 16, 2015, at Sammon Field in Vestal, N.Y.; and the Wyalusing Relay for Life to be held on June 13, at Wyalusing High School in Wyalusing, Pa.
I’ve chosen to walk in the Western Broom County Relay for Life in May because it is there that the doctors, nurses and organizations have helped the loved one that inspires me to walk in the first place. I have chosen to walk in the Wyalusing Relay for Life because it is a Relay for Life in the county that I reside, giving me a chance to help my own community.
If you want to join the Western Broome County Relay for Life or the Wyalusing Relay for Life Healthy Steps team, visit the Relay for Life website or call the American Cancer Society and sign up. If you aren’t able to participate, but would like to donate, donations can be made either through the Relay for Life website, or by writing or calling the American Cancer Society.
If mailing in or calling in a donation, be sure to state that the donation is to be applied to the Healthy Steps team fundraising goal. Donations can be made online from the team’s page.
To sign up for the Western Broome County Relay for Life team or to donate, contact the Relay for Life at: 2015 R.F.L. Western Broome (Healthy Steps), American Cancer Society, 13 Beech St., Johnson City, N.Y. 13790; or you can call 1-800-227-2345 of visit main.acsevents.org/site/TR?fr_id=67039&pg=team&team_id=1760982.
To sign up for the Wyalusing event, or to donate, contact the Relay for Life at: 2015 R.F.L. Wyalusing (Healthy Steps), American Cancer Society, 320 Bilmar Dr., Pittsburgh, Pa. 15205; or you can call 1-800-227-2345 or visit main.acsevents.org/site/TR?fr_id=66263&pg=team&team_id=1760983.
I really hope to see members of the community step up and take a step towards fighting cancer. I’d love to see you there!
If you want to follow my weight-loss journey, read about it occasionally in my column, “Healthy Steps”, or you can watch my weight-loss journey unfold and show your support by liking the page www.facebook.com/GretchenGetFit on Facebook or by following me on Twitter @GretchenGetFit. Contact the writer at gbalshuweit@thedailyreview.com.
Healthy Steps is written by Gretchen Balshuweit, news editor and Health & Wellness page columnist for The Daily Review as she pursues her own journey to health and wellness in hopes of losing a total of 200-250 pounds of excess weight.
