Three years ago, I began a journey. It was not one I entered by choice. It was not a vacation or a walk in the park. It was a fight for my life in a place I call Cancerland. My battle with ovarian and uterine cancer took every bit of my strength, courage, and faith. Many of you were my support during that difficult time for my family. You carted kids, fixed meals, sent cards, and cleaned my house. Without you, we could not have gotten through my treatments and the months of my decreased strength.
Recently, I have realized that though I have been cancer free for over three years, my journey is not complete. I am making an effort not only to be cancer free, but also to be in good health. I have lost 37 lbs. in the past few months in an effort to take my life back. I am feeling better than I have in years, and know that this effort will continue to bring my fitness level to a healthy place as I strive to remain cancer free.
As a part of this endeavor, my daughter Hannah and I have taken on an incredible challenge. In October, we will be walking the Susan G. Komen Three Day with a team of women from my school, the White County Walking Warriors. It is a 60-mile walk over the course of three days. Our team will be camping out at night with thousands of others who are also walking to find a cure for breast cancer. It does not matter to me that I did not have breast cancer. In my book, cancer is cancer. It is a battle no matter where it strikes in the body, and if they find a cure for breast cancer, cures for the other types will not be far behind. It is my desire for my daughter to avoid having to go through what I went through…and so we will walk, together. Cancer steals your peace of mind. It takes your physical strength. It brings with it many tears and much heartache. I feel this journey will validate our battle and bring healing to our emotions. It will make us stronger and bond our hearts even more. We are dedicating our walk to breast cancer survivor Louise Gunnin, who was recently diagnosed with brain cancer that is unrelated to her former illness. Our family is done with this disease, and this walk is our statement of that fact. Enough already!!
We ask that you would consider helping us raise our funds to do this walk. It is a giant undertaking for us to commit to raise almost $5,000, but we feel this is something we really want to do as a statement that cancer will not beat us. It is stand we are taking together…a commitment to take care of our bodies in order to avoid the pain of cancer in the future. So we are asking you once again for your help. Any amount you give would be appreciated. We would like to make our goal before August if possible. You can donate in several ways.
• Online at http://www.the3day.org Click Donate Now and search for our personal pages. (Michelle Gunnin or Hannah Gunnin)
• You can also donate through our facebook pages with the 3-day button on our profile pages.
• There is a button on my blog as well. http://www.mgunnin.blog.com
• You can also call 800-996-3DAY to donate over the phone.
• Last but not least, you can send a check made out to Susan G. Komen with a donation form (the form is online at the website listed above) to:
Susan G. Komen
3-day for the Cure
P.O. Box 660843
Dallas, TX 75266-0843
One more thing. Please check each of our balances and give to whoever is lowest. That way we don’t end up with one of us getting a huge amount and the other having nothing. We each have to raise $2,300, so we want to try to keep it as balanced between our accounts as possible. Thank you again for all of your support both in the past and again now.

We love you all,
Michelle and Hannah Gunnin