The One in Which I Tell Y'all About the Relay for Life in Livermore

Team picture (actually at the end of the event) Theme: pajamas! Mine say: "Lazy Days, Ninja Nights" Rawwr!

Livermore Relay for Life, 2015

A few months back, Kate Gazzuolo (part of our SKW family) sent me an email asking if I was interested in joining their Relay for Life team benefiting the American Cancer Society this year. They've been doing it for about 5 years  - her immediate family and several members of the Steven Kent Winery Family. She totally understood if I was not up to it, but they wanted me to know that they had changed the team name in my honor from "Wine Girls" to "June's Wine Girl Ninja Warriors". (Have I mentioned how much the Steven Kent Winery Family ROCKS?  Probably not enough! Well, they ROCK!) I told her that I would love to join the team, raise some money, and play it by ear about how much I could actually walk on that day. Done deal! 

  

Katie Gazzuolo - Our Team Captain, and Cindy Turchino - Tasting Room Manager & Professional Pirate

I set up my page on the American Cancer Society website and solicited donations - and once again, family and friends - June's Warriors - humbled me with their generosity and support. <grabs tissues> [note to self: buy stock in Kleenex] Big Ninja Warrior kisses & hugs!!!

I had never participated in a Relay for Life event (I know many of those Warriors out there have - so forgive me if I bore you by describing some of the details - at least for this one.). The first thing I did was check in. If you are a Survivor (Yay, me!), you got a stick with a sign saying how long you've been a survivor. The two survivors in front of me said with confidence "37 years"...then "40 years". When it was my turn, the young girl who was volunteering to write on the signs looked expectantly at me. "um...9 months." She paused a moment, looked at the adult seated next to her for guidance - who sweetly just gave her a reassuring nod, a signal as if to say: "Well, write that down, honey!" I thought I was going to win a prize for being the least amount of time as I looked at the Survivor Signs around me, but then the beautiful Linda Santos and Sandy Casey showed up. Her sign said, "8 months". Dammit! I don't even win THAT prize? Well, as it turned out, neither of us would have won that prize (Kiddies -I'm totally making this up. There is NO prize for that distinction. I have to be honest.  I just don't want you to be bitterly disappointed if you ever go to one of these events and have just been diagnosed or something.) Anyway, we spotted a man with "7 months" a little later on. But many more inspiring signs with decades of survival!

I love Steven & Sandy's beauty pageant sashes for being Caregivers! At least Sandy has the pageant stance down!

The Relay isn't really a "relay" in the truest sense of the word. At least one person from the team has to be out on the track, walking laps, at all times for the 12 hours, but there's no baton passed or anything. We had some lovely volunteers that came by to help and walk some laps for us - Thank you so much!!! I even had a former student come up in the middle of the night to volunteer! I'm ...really speechless about this. But I could cry some more if I weren't out of tissues....We love you!!! and NEEDED you! 

Especially since some people on our team got involved in an hour or two of playing a "cornhole" game...which apparently means something completely different to most people than it did to me. I always called that game Beanbag Toss (throwing a beanbag into a hole in a board). "Cornhole"? Well...Google that Shit or use your imagination, but that is NOT what I thought that meant. Come on! I know I'm not the only one out there...There were themes for all the laps - which my team captain assured me was not necessary - but I am actually a lover of themes [Let's just say "hokey" has been used in a sentence about me more than once.] and chose ones that I wanted to participate in...especially the Super Hero one. Hello??? Who doesn't want to dress like a super hero? Apparently, 99.9% of the participants. But I wore my Ninja Warrior costume with pride!

That's right! Don't fuck with me, Cancer! 'Cause you don't know who you're dealing with! Ninjas are stealthy like that!

In addition to the funds we raised online, each booth had raffle items and other ways to make money. Our team had this beautiful basket with a wine tasting package of local wineries, as well as a table of used books.

Notice Steven in the background (look for the bald head), "working hard", reading one of the books he found on the table. That's alright. Caregivers deserve breaks for sure! Love you, Schmoopy!  Xoxoxo

The team also had a bunch of karate boards with CANCER written on them for people to karate chop CANCER.

Sharyn Bell, karate chopping Cancer's ass while Katie bravely holds the plank.

The other theme time that I really wanted to be a part of was the Luminarias. People decorate paper bags with names of treasured loved ones that have passed away or people currently Warriors living with Cancer. They light the bags along the track (with glow sticks) at dark and you walk along, reading the names and reflecting on how many people that Cancer has touched.  It's very powerful when you see them all lined up, each representing a father, brother, son, mother, sister, daughter...[You know what, Cancer? You suck! #sorrynotsorry]

Ninja Carol honored me with this luminaria. So sweet! 

 I had ordered my bag online for Jeannie Mullins - I didn't realize that we could decorate our own, so a volunteer did it ahead of time. It's a little sloppy, but Jeannie would understand...she taught 2nd graders, after all!
Thank you to my wonderful team/family for inviting us to be a part of this!
And our little but mighty team raised over $6,608!  The whole event raised: $136,458.98

Disclaimer: Almost all of the photos in this blog post have been stolen downloaded from someone else's Facebook page. Sharyn Bell, the Gazzuolo family, Cindy Turchino... thank you for being such good photographers and recording these precious moments. I have found that, since my diagnosis, I forget to take pictures because it distracts me from being IN THE MOMENT. Maybe it's the cancer. Maybe it's the sense of urgency to be present? Which is kind of the same thing, if I think about it...Whatever. I'm using my #cancercard to justify stealing other people's stuff. k? #freepass

The One in Which I Want to Make a Difference

Warning: The following blog post contains language which is intended for Mature Audiences only.  (I would have to count how many F words I used to actually rate it R or PG-13, and "Ain't nobody got time for that!")  Discretion is advised.

This is a true story. Anyone that was a junior or senior at Hopewell Valley Central High School in Pennington, NJ in the early-80's will back me up on this if they were a witness. My memory is a little fuzzy on the detail, partly because of my age, partly because...ummmm...I have BRAIN CANCER. Hello?! (#freepass) But mostly because I'm really not sure what was going on that day. The best I can determine is that I was a witness to someone's psychological meltdown. So, some of the specifics might be inaccurate, but remember what my mom and dad told me: "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story." [P.S. Yes, that means that you should always be slightly suspicious about any stories they tell you.]

Back to the story:

I never realized before that our mascot looks kind of like a rabid dog, no?

When I was about 15 or so, the whole high school student body - actually, I think it might have been juniors/seniors -  were ushered into the auditorium because the principal...or ass't superintendent? (fuzzy, unnecessary details) ...was going to address us. So, we took our seats, and there's this man at the podium, wearing a suit, looking really serious, ready to speak. Only, when he started talking, he didn't make sense...except that it was clear that :1) He was having some kind of mental breakdown, and 2) He wasn't going to have his job after that day. He was rambling on about something or other...The part that I do remember quite clearly is that he said:

"25% of people are going to require psychiatric care sometime in their lives....Look to the left of you." (Everyone looked to the left.) "Look to the right of you." (Again, everyone reflexively looked to the right, albeit with a baffled expression on our faces.) "If it's not one of them, it's you." [Kiddos, I'm pretty sure his math was faulty... ] Shortly there after that, he was politely escorted off the stage by some school district personnel and I don't think I ever saw him again. I swear I'm not making this up! Who would make something like this up?

I was thinking about that experience recently as I was looking at cancer statistics this week. Not that mental breakdown part, but the odds of being afflicted with something.This is Brain Tumor Awareness Month, but as I said, Cancer is cancer is cancer. And everyone has been/is currently/or will be touched by cancer sometime in their lives. That's not some crazy rambling fact from a poor person having a very public mental breakdown. Honestly, I wish it were. That's some hard, cold facts. For example, if 1 in every 2 males will have cancer in their lifetime...Male readers: it could be YOU. or your father, or your brother, or your grandfather...but anyway you look at it,  you are going to be touched by the pain and anguish of dealing with this disease. All of you. Sooner or later.

Female readers: Apparently, we have a 1 in 3 chance in our lifetime of getting cancer.  I've already been "touched by cancer" in my family  - twice, actually. My maternal grandmother and her sister (my great-aunt) both died of cancer.

There's my Grandma Gobinski with most of her grandchildren. I think this may be the only time the plastic covers weren't on the sofa cushions.

 This fact is always written in my chart when I visit a new doctor. So, I'm thinking I've done my whole odds thing, right? But then when you include my good friends that have been diagnosed with cancer... my mother-in-law and father-in-law who are also Warriors (I'm not going to blab about the specifics because that's their stories to tell)...it seems like I've already reached...no, FAR exceeded the statistical average... But then, son-of-a-bitch! I get diagnosed with brain cancer? [It's just like me to be afflicted with the weirdo, pretty rare kind of cancer. Always gotta be "different", huh, June? j/k] 

Seriously, though. Don't we all think, deep in our hearts and minds that someone else in our lives has already fulfilled our statistics? "It's not gonna be ME!" I've talked to other people who have been diagnosed with cancer, and it's very common to have that thought early on in the process: "Why ME?!?!" But the real question is, "Why NOT ME?" Unless you have some super, special force field around your body to prevent it , I hate to break the news to you, but...you are not safe. I'm a Mother Fucking Ninja Warrior, for fuck's sake! I thought I was safe. No, that's not exactly true. The truth is (...it sounds moronic to say now) but I didn't think about it at all. And I can say with absolute certainty that the news was the most shocking, surreal thing that I've ever experienced. So, I say to you again, male or female: Anyway you look at it,  you are going to be touched by the pain and anguish of dealing with this disease. All of you. Sooner or later.

Well, that was bummer news, huh? But I have HOPE, and I know you do, too.  I believe that the collective intelligence and ingenuity of researchers working together around the world, we will eventually find a CURE for cancer. Selfishly, I'm hoping it comes sooner rather than later. These stable MRI's are great for right now, but I'd like to have the fucking cancer cells completely out of my body, FOREVER, at some point ....while I'm still alive. (In case I didn't make that clear enough.)

So, I've mentioned this already, but I wanted to dedicate a whole blog post to this. I am participating in a Relay for Life team. And it would be totally bitchin' if you could donate some money to the cause.  It's pretty simple. Just click on the link and follow the instructions.

 June's Wine Girl Ninjas' Relay for Life

You can donate to any of us on the team. And feel free to stop by and cheer us on!

Saturday, June 27-28, 2015

9:00AM to 9:00AM

Livermore High School

600 Maple St, Livermore

Oh, and pay no attention to whether I've "reached my goal" or not. We will have "reached our goal" when we don't have to think about the statistics any more because we've found a CURE. I'd love to see that happen in my lifetime, but if it doesn't work out that way, I will know that this Mother Fuckin' Brain Cancer Fighting Ninja Warrior did something to help because she has the most amazing Warriors standing beside her.

 No One Fights Alone!

Love,
June Xoxoxo
#mfbcfnw

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FYI - At some point soon, I will address the fact that May is Brain Tumor Awareness Month - and not all brain tumors are cancerous. Many are "benign" which is a misnomer in some ways because people can die - many do - from "benign"brain tumors.

The One in Which I Talk About Cancer Awareness and Support

Long before I was diagnosed with brain cancer, I had associated the color pink with breast cancer. They have done a great job with their campaign to build that "brand recognition" - pink yogurt tops and even an NFL day when football players wear pink. The Pink Brigade is strong!

True story: when I first started googling "brain cancer", among the top 10 possible links were always one or two "breast cancer" links - like it was a typo, and they are trying to helpful. Really?!?! Oh, google...sometimes you disappoint me...


Honestly, I didn't even know that every type of cancer had its own color. Did you? Look at all these! (There will be a quiz later. j/k!)

Do you know that lung cancer is one the top killers among the list, and its ribbon color is white? Something to think about. It also receives the least funding of any of the major cancer types. It's complicated. [Source: SF Gate]

Except, I knew dark blue was associated with colon cancer because my Rock Star Running Friend, Liz, does such a great job advocating since her diagnosis. <--- She's one of my role models and my heroes!

 When I found out that the color associated with Brain Cancer was gray/grey* (U.S. spelling/U.K. spelling), I'm not gonna lie. I was a little disappointed. Not that I'm a super-girly girl and have a lot of pink ribbons in my closet. But I didn't think grey was very compelling either...but now I've embraced GREY, and you will see me wearing it every day of May, Brain Cancer Awareness Month. Look out, Instagram and Twitter!  I went to Savers (local thrift store - hey, I'm not proud!) and T.J. Maxx to get a good supply of cute grey clothes!

I got a pin from zazzle.com to help start the conversation rolling.

So, what's the point of "awareness" anyway? Unfortunately, chances are, we will all be touched by cancer in one way or another in our lifetime. I think the latest statistics is that 1 out of every 2 males and 1 out of every 3 females will have cancer at some point in their lifetime. [Source: Cancer.org] Those are some sobering statistics. Awareness hopefully leads to two key things: 1) Prevention and 2) Funding for research to find a cure. Does it work? If the Pink Brigade is any indication - Yes.

The fact is that, at the moment, funding for research is not evenly distributed or distributed proportionately to the number/percentage of people that are diagnosed and/or die from that particular disease. Funding for research comes from lobbying (AWARENESS). So...what to do, what to do?

For a start, for the next month or so I will be doing two critical things:
I will be raising funds for all my fellow Cancer Warriors. Cancer is cancer is cancer - and all of us Warriors need support - survivors, angels, caregivers, family and friends...I got your back!
and
I will try to raise awareness of Brain Cancer during the whole month of May. (see above)

My Steven Kent Winery Family has been supporting the American Cancer Society for several years by participating in the Relay for Life. This year, I was honored to be asked to join the team, and they've even changed their name to "June's Wine Girl Ninjas"! Of course, we'll be honoring lots of Cancer Warriors from all our lives, too! Please visit my page to learn more about how to support our team! Thanks!!

June's Wine Girl Ninjas Relay for Life Page

And who knows? Maybe someday we'll see the NFL wearing GREY for a day and the cheerleaders shaking around GREY pom-poms? It may not be as "cute", but I would argue that the BRAIN is worth it!

*I am going to be using the U.K. spelling of grey because most of the awareness material out there is spelled that way - which is an interesting little tidbit of information. The U.K. seems far ahead of the U.S. in building an infrastructure for Brain Cancer Survivors to support each other (in my humble opinion).

[I know there is some controversy about the use of these colored ribbons - especially the pink ones -  and how much money actually goes to the cause from these corporate campaigns - but I would prefer to leave that out of this discussion. Thanks!]