Over the past month as our readership has expanded I have been fortunate enough to connect with a lot of great supporters literally from coast to coast. Some readers reach out to me asking how they can help the Run for Dom (RFD) effort, some ask for training advice while others simply stop by to say that they find this two marathons in two-week “challenge” very motivating as they have someone who they are close to suffering in their own battle against cancer.
Dom Jr., Dom Sr., wife Val
This morning I wanted to just take a moment to update everyone on how things are going with our good friend Dom whose cancer battle is the inspiration behind the RFD (Run for Dom) effort, thank each and every one of our supporters and also share a new initiative that I am very excited about as we all pull together to raise funds for Dom’s battle against this terrible disease.
For starters Dom is simply the man.
Spending time with Dom and his family over the holidays in Pittsburgh was really a great experience. Only 6 weeks or so into his recovery from a very invasive and serious surgery which included the removal of Dom’s stomach, spleen, parts of a few adjoining organs and a hot chemotherapy “bath” to further treat the area. Dom is gearing up to gain enough strength for his next and hopefully final three rounds of chemotherapy treatments. Nutrition is still the major obstacle as Dom’s body is adjusting to taking solid food and liquids in place of the feeding tube that Dom has been using for the past several weeks. To take in 2,000 calories of nutrition, Dom needs to be “on the feeding tube” for about 8 hours. The sooner Dom can get himself over feeling pain and nausea when he eats solid foods – the faster he can get on with his final treatments and on to recovery.
Joe & Dom - Christmas 2009
I know this time has been very frustrating for Dom as he “felt” much, much better leading up to surgery than he has since leaving the hospital. But this is just an adjustment period for Dom as his body gets used to functioning in a very different way. Progress is slow to come, but to borrow from this effort – Dom’s recovery is a marathon (or two), not a sprint. Slow and steady will win this race – and I am very, very proud of the fight that Dom has shown. He is an inspiration to all of us.
With the first of two races now only 100 days away and training runs get longer and longer each Sunday we have launched a sponsors level at RFD. For any donation of $100 or more you are able to sponsor an individual mile at either the Boston Marathon on April 19, 2010 or the Pittsburgh Marathon on May 2, 2010.
The name of each mile sponsor will be posted on the right of the blog leading up to race day(s) as well as in our honor roll of donors on the RFD website. If you are interested in supporting RFD at the sponsor level or any level – please feel free to visit our secure site at www.runfordom.com Please simply indicate via e-mail which mile you would like to sponsor and I will make the updates to the site as the gifts are received.
Your kind words, support, messages and of course donations are all greatly appreciated – I look forward to running miles for many of you in the Boston and Pittsburgh Marathons this spring. Please check back often for updates and new posts – the next 100 days to Boston and 113 to Pittsburgh are sure to be full of surprises. I’ve got a front row seat to all the craziness – I hope you come along for the ride.
Joe Runs For Dom 