Everything Has Changed.

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Everything has changed and yet - thankfully - nothing has.

I'll explain. On October 16, my husbands 50 th birthday, we were told that a lesion that had been removed was Malignant Melanoma. To make a very long story short, we knew that early detection was vital if the cancer was to be contained. However, the spot had been on his back for a long time. The news looked as if it was to be very bad indeed. However, days later, the pathology report showed some very good news which was confirmed by a cancer specialist. The cancer had not yet spread down deep enough to have invaded his lymph system and therefore, his body. We were very fortunate!

Everything else in my life, aside from researching all I could about this disease, had been on stand by until we learned the final results.

Now here we are, with our lives back on track and I find myself thinking about running the Harrisburg Marathon again. Something that I could not even conceive off just a short time ago. And the fact that I had to drop out of the Steamtown Marathon due to a knee injury a few weeks ago seems ridiculously unimportant in comparison to what we had just faced.

To be honest, I did not need this scare to appreciate life or running or being. I have always held life as precious and truly value being healthy enough to run. So has my husband. I am grateful beyond words that he does not have to go through an ordeal that rarely has a happy ending. And as I write this - it strikes me that there are those among us that do not get off so easily. My heart aches for them. So I asked myself what can I do with this knowledge? This awareness that I now have? I decided to warn you. Each of you that reads this column. As runners, we are usually out in the sun more than most. That may put us at a higher risk for skin cancer. But I am not here to tell you to avoid the sun. No - my mission is to just give you a few facts.

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