>My dear friend Sara is walking — walking up a storm in Chicago. She and a good friend are participating in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer this spring. Sara had breast cancer a few years ago, and she suffered through chemo, radiation, reconstructive surgery (twice!), and more. She is an amazing woman with a fantastic sense of humor and a limitless capacity to love and care for others. Sara and an artist friend designed and decorated this lion, titled Breast Cancer Survivors: Not an Endangered Species.
She is collecting pledges on the Avon Walk web site. Money goes for both research and treatment. In her words,

“For 2 days 4000 people walked for one cause. It was a remarkable weekend….We watched as 4 groups were granted a total of 4 million dollars. Half of that went towards research, which is vital towards finding a cure (for all sorts of cancers), and half went towards care for under-insured breast cancer patients. I carried you all with me as I walked. I am so grateful for your help.”

You can help sponsor Sara and her walking buddy by following these steps.

• Go online to Avonwalk.org
• click on “Make a Donation”
• click on “Donate to a participant”
• click on “Chicago, 2008”
• fill in first name Sara and last name Wilda
• click on “find a walker/crew member”
• click on Wilda,Sara
• click on “Click Here to Support Me”

I know your time and your money are valuable. My donations have been embarrassingly small — a drop in the bucket, so to speak. But if enough people put drops in it, the bucket will eventually fill. All of us who have been touched by breast cancer (personally or in our families) really appreciate your support, be it financial or moral.

I almost titled this post “These boobs were made for walking!” Then I thought of all the weird and inappropriate google searches that might wind up here, and opted for the cleaner and more appropriate title. Sara, however, would have laughed out loud at the first one!