Dear friend, colleague, stranger –  

Thank you for visiting my NYC Marathon fundraising page! If you haven’t already, I hope that reading this will convince you to support me as a I train for my very first full marathon (woohoo!) and, more importantly, donate to an incredible organization dedicated to funding groundbreaking scientific research for the prevention and early detection of ovarian cancer.

Tina’s Wish was founded in 2008 in memory of the Honorable
Tina Brozman, former chief judge of the SDNY Bankruptcy Court, who died two years after she was diagnosed – too late – with ovarian cancer. Ovarian cancer isn’t difficult to cure. If detected early on, the survival rate is 92% – but this cancer is incredibly hard to detect.  Because of that, 80% of women
do not receive a diagnosis until it is too late and treatment is less or no longer effective, resulting in a survivability rate (>5 years) of only 27%. A diagnostic method that could detect the disease at an earlier stage is therefore critical.

The research that Tina's Wish funds, in part because of your
generosity, will lead to innovations in the early detection and prevention of ovarian cancer so that women around the world can fight and beat this cancer before it is too late. For that reason, I am so proud to serve on the NextGen for Tina’s Wish and to dedicate my first marathon to running for this amazing organization.

I’ll wrap this up by emphasizing how much your support means
as I train for what feels, at least to me, like an impossible physical feat. I am in ok shape, but I’m definitely not *a runner* (you know what I mean), so I am VERY nervous about the brutal training schedule that will be required to get me ready for this race and the blisters, bruised toenails, and sore legs that lie ahead. Know that every time I’m temped to hit the snooze button and skip my morning training run, or I’m exhausted and just can’t imagine running another step, I will draw inspiration and endurance from each of you and your generous support.

If you’ve made it this far, thanks so much for reading and I sincerely hope you will contribute. In addition to donations, I welcome your audio book and podcast recommendations 😊

P.S. My younger brother, John Lewis, has decided to join me
on Team Tina’s Wish and we will be training for this thing together! This is also his first marathon, so please check out his fundraising page as well and offer him some encouragement with a donation.