6/6/23

Thank you so much to Pete Toole, Myles Anthony and Douglas Ritter for donating to sponsor me during the month of May.  Thanks again to all of you who gave prior to May.  Together you have gotten me over half way to my goal of bettering what I earned last year: $3000.  

This month our beloved close friend, Linda Zotter, has a recurrence of the breast cancer she thought she had conquered 17 years ago.  Linda was Kip's first boss at Catholic Charities Refugee Resettlement.  I went with her 17 years ago when she got her first dose of adriamycin (the "red devil").  A few weeks ago I went with her to get her first MRI.

Last week I went to the celebration of my 50th year of graduation from Johns Hopkins Medical School.  The celebration included a section called: "Hop Talks: Hopkins Cutting Edge Technology."  One of these talks was entitled: "Is My Cancer Really Gone," by Dan Edelstein.  The new technology enables tumor recurrence detection by circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in blood much sooner than by any other existing modality.  I thought immediately of Katie and Linda.  

It is with hope that money Kip and I raise in riding for Roswell will help bring about breakthroughs in tumor science such as ctDNA.  There are only 19 days before Kip and I will ride 66 miles in this year's Ride for Roswell.  Please donate to sponsor us if you possibly can.  We and Roswell appreciate every penny.

5/1/23  Today I'd like to share with you words from Katie Behan Creenan, in whose honor I ride this year.  This weekend she celebrated her one year survival date from receiving the diagnosis of Stage IV breast cancer.  Yesterday she posted the following on Facebook, which I share with her permission:

I have officially had my de novo metastatic breast cancer diagnosis for 365 days. In that time I have had:
2 bilateral breast MRIs
2 mammograms
1 breast biopsy procedure
2 liver biopsy procedures
1 port placement procedure
2 full body PET scans
2 thoracic MRIs
2 lumbar MRIs
1 brain and Skull MRI
3 bone scans
4 CT chest, abdominal and pelvis scans
2 blood transfusions
1 echocardiogram
1 EKG
3 months of hormone therapy
6 months paclitaxel/carboplatin IV chemotherapy
2 months parp inhibitor therapy
1 infusion targeted chemotherapy (current treatment plan)
~60 blood tests

But also in this time, I have been a wife, mother, friend, sister, daughter. I’ve continued to work full time in a career I am passionate about! I started and grown my small business @littleflame_cc . I’ve learned to embrace my authentic self and not wait for the perfect time. Yes, I get mad and sad- I think “why me” more often than I’d like to admit. But on a day that I could be spiraling I am going to instead scream from the rooftops. Look how much I have done!

I might be a physician, but I had no idea of what Katie and others like her undergo in struggling to stay alive and beat this cancer.  I've met few with her passion and transparency in sharing her story in order to both help others and to remain resilient.  

Thanks to Andrea Driscoll, my best friend from high school, who persevered in sponsoring me to ride for Katie and for the many others whom I know who have struggled and/or succumbed to cancer.  Andrea found that facebook would not let her donate using the link on her page or mine.  If that happens to you, please just google "Ride for Roswell."  The donate tab comes up immediately and always works.  Again, if you can, please sponsor me.  Thanks, Terri

4/24/23  Only two months to go.  Thanks to Mary Beth DiMarco whose donation last week put me over the $1000 mark.  Thanks to Ellen Byrne, Pat Bartoshesky, KayWitherspoon and Colleen Montgomery whose donations put me close to the half way mark to my goal of $3000.  Last week Kip and I went out practicing again: 32 miles, not quite half the miles we'll do when we ride on 6/24.  This weekend is a landmark weekend for Katie Behan-Creenan.  She will celebrate her one year survival since being diagnosed with State 4 breast cancer.  We're helping her celebrate with her sister, our daughter-in-law, Eileen Behan Hargrave, by helping our son, Michael, take care of our grandchildren, Henry and Westley with her children, Ellie and Addie.  You're really good if you can follow all that relatedness!  I know that inflation is giving all of us less disposable income this year, but if you can please sponsor me again even if it is "inflation adjusted."  Thanks so much, Terri

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4/19/23

Hi, dear Friends, Thanks so much to all of you who have donated so far to help me reach my fundraising goal of $3000 - which is about how much I raised last year. Thanks especially to Shilpa Sachdeva who has put me almost one third of the way to this goal! Who will help put me over the $1000 mark?
Kip and I continue to train whenever weather permits. Please go to my regular facebook site to see a picture, taken by Kip, of me training. It was taken on the top of a hill on a breezy but beautiful early spring day.
I hope you all had a blessed Easter/Passover/Rahmadan. Thanks for accompanying me on this journey, Terri

4/6/23

Happy Easter/Passover, dear friends! Last Saturday there was one warm sunny morning. Kip and I had just gotten our bikes back from tune-ups at the bike shop and were raring to go out to the countryside that we love. We started in 60+ degree sunshine, rode to our half-way point and noticed that the sky to the west looked like trouble. We didn't stop for a snack. We turned our bikes west and began pedaling as fast as we could. The wind blew harder and harder and soon brought the rain that the color of the sky promised. If the temperature hadn't dropped with the wind and the rain, we would have been sweating. At one point, I was riding on a flat bit but had to put the bike in its lowest gear in order to even keep upright! Fortunately, the last leg of the ride back was a delicious downhill and brought us wet and weary to our car. Yes, we are in training for the Ride for Roswell. We'll ride rain or shine, you can bet on us. We'd really appreciate it if you would sponsor us for the Ride, if you haven't already. Big thanks to Sue Tannehill for her donation since my last note...and thanks to West Herr Automotive Group who matched her donation. Thanks again to all of you who have already donated. Blessings, Terri/aka Teresa

3/27/23

Dear Friends and Family, Almost two months ago, Kip and I started fundraising for this year's Ride for Roswell which this year we are doing thinking especially of Katie Behan Creenan. We're also riding remembering her mother, the mother of Mike's wife, Eileen, who succumbed to cancer not even two years ago and the many others in our lives who have died because of cancer or are struggling to live with it. This year my personal goal is $3000. Thanks so much to Donna Dalal-Ferne, Mary Keough, Dana Cohen, Jim McKeever, Nancy Bronstein, Susana Rey-Alvarez, Bill Collins, Sue Menke, Amy Woolever, Mary Kuhn, and Bridget Holmes for donating to get me to the $721 mark. The Ride is now less than three months away. I do so hope to make my goal - and more if possible. Especially those of you who have not sponsored me yet this year, consider doing so as generously as you can. Thanks, Terri

2/2/23

Happy 2023, dear Family and Friends,

This year Kip and I will be riding in honor of Katie Behan Creenan, sister of our beloved daughter-in-law, Eileen Behan Hargrave. Katie discovered that she had Stage 4 breast cancer last year shortly after she gave birth to her second daughter.  Her first child was only two years old.  It was barely a year after her mother, Kathy Behan, died of uterine cancer.  Katie is struggling bravely with her therapies and their side effects.  I am hoping and praying that there will be new developments in research such as Roswell does to make her journey successful. 

Last year in my first fundraising letter, I mentioned the many friends and relatives I had lost to cancer.  I also listed the many that are alive thanks to the therapies developed and tested by places like Roswell.  I am grateful.

I am also grateful to Roswell for giving me a start in my careers in research and in medicine.  Roswell also supports summer science programs for high school and college students.  In 1963, '64 and '65, I was one of those students.  In 1966, Roswell gave me my first paying job as a research technician in their tissue culture lab.  Roswell launched me.  I am grateful.

Please consider donating to keep Roswell pushing to help young mothers like my Katie beat cancer and live to see their children's children.  For this, I will be grateful.  

Thanks, Terri