Helmeteering

Today marks the one year anniversary of my cancer diagnosis. My last scan at the end of May was clean and I have been moved from a scan schedule of every 6 weeks to every 6 months. I’m pretty lucky and have been feeling good, out enjoying summer on the bike and time with my family. Recovery continues to be “so far so good”, all fingers crossed that this continues to be the case.

My family and a core group of my friends have been with me over the past year and I don’t have enough words to express my thanks and gratitude for their care and support. These people have not hesitated to offer help or step up whenever I have needed something. Each of you know who you are and I am forever in your debt.

Even more have reached out to me to express their concern and care or taken the time to join me on a bike ride this spring and summer. It means so much to me and I thank you all.

As I said, I am pretty lucky. Not just for the how my recovery has gone so far, but for the fact that I am the one that had to go through this. It’s not been an easy process but since it was my diagnosis and treatment I always had the luxury of working through the ups and downs in my own way and in my own time. It made me feel like I had a certain amount of control over this process and this made it all a bit easier to deal with. I can’t imagine how I would have been able to handle the past year if my wife Melissa had received this same diagnosis. Even worse if one my kids had been diagnosed. It would have been a year of confusion, frustration and torment with no ability to do anything other than being a worried spectator. I do not know if I have the strength to handle something like this.

And yet, there are thousands of families that are dealing with this right now. Watching their child go through surgical procedures, chemotherapy and radiation treatments, dealing with side effects like nausea and neuropathy, and with no ability to do anything more than be a worried spectator with hopes that their child recovers. How do you work? How do you sleep? How do you care about anything else? It’s really impossible for me to imagine.

Childhood cancer research gets a faction of the dollars allocated to adult cancer research. Half of all childhood cancer research if funded by private donations.

Over the past year a lot of people have asked how they can help me while I was undergoing treatment. I thank each one of you and sincerely appreciate your offer. I’m good right now but if you still want to help me you will contribute to my fundraiser for the Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation before the end of August:

Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation, organized by Christopher Smith

With your help the PCRF will continue their work to reduce the number of children and their families that have to deal with this disease. Any amount that you can contribute would truly mean the world to me.

Thank you and I wish you all the very best. More updates to come. ❤