If you’ve been reading my blog recently, you already know that I’m participating in a fundraiser called HOOFING IT Across Canada. We, the Canadian neuroendocrine cancer (NETS) community, are working together in an effort to raise $100,000 for much needed neuroendocrine cancer research. Participants have been racking up as many kilometres as we can by walking, hiking, kayaking, swimming, cycling, roller-blading, or any other forward moving activity that we can think of and tracking our individual distances. Our original goal was to record 5,514 kilometres, the distance from Newfoundland and Labrador to the Yukon, but I am very proud to announce that in less than two weeks, we’ve already surpassed 4000 km! As a result, we have a brand new goal. We’re not just HOOFING IT Across Canada, we’re HOOFING IT Across Canada and BACK! That’s right! Our new goal is 11,028 km.

Personally, I’ve walked over 33 km since July 1st. While that’s a tiny fraction of the distance that’s been covered (it helps that we have some long distance cyclists and runners in the group), I’m one third of the way to reaching my personal goal of 100 km. At this rate, I may have to increase my goal too!

Of course, the main purpose of the HOOFING IT Across Canada campaign is to raise funds for research. Once rare, NETS is now the fastest growing class of cancers worldwide, accounting for approximately 2% of all cancers. We need to know why this is. We need safer and more effective methods to prevent, detect, diagnose, treat, and ultimately cure this disease. Research is the key to transforming and saving lives and research takes money.

HOOFING IT is the easy part. Asking people for money is more difficult, especially in today’s economy when many are facing financial hardship and don’t have extra to give. By last night, however, we had raised over $20,000 and were 20% of the way to meeting our goal. I’m extremely grateful to those who have made donations on my behalf. At $875, I’m almost 60% of the way to meeting my personal goal of $1500. If you would like to add to this amount, please click here to visit my fundraising page. No amount is too small. Every dollar brings us one step closer to finding the answers we’re looking for.

In the meantime, I’m off to the city tomorrow for CT scans to see if there’s been any change to my NETS tumours over the past six months. I won’t be meeting with the doctor and finding out the results until August 6, so I’ll try to provide an update after that.