The Reason

Last night, we received some very sad news about one of our honorees in the Bay Area. Although I have never met Brenda, I am literally reduced to tears reading about her amazing spirit as she struggles with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Below is a team email me received. We can all use some of the strength Brenda has. And I thank her for her inspiration and reminding me to be grateful for what I have.
m.
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Hi Team,

For those of you who were at the track workout tonight, here is more information about Brenda Donato, the honoree Todd spoke about tonight. Todd says, "It goes to show us all how much work there is left to do when some of the treatments we have at our disposal are as dangerous as the disease itself." Read on to learn more about Brenda. Please, let's all keep her and her family in our thoughts. This is an email that was sent on to TNT honorees from one of Brenda's friends:

"Its with a very very heavy heart that I send this to you. Brenda Donoato, who is a dear friend and has been one of hour honorees for many seasons has been given 12-36 hours to live. My good friend Lindsay is at the hospital and has been helping Brenda quite a bit over the past few months and we are all just devasted. As an FYI, the summer team for the TNT has been named Team Brenda. I'll be doing the Summer Team so I hope you join as well so that we can find a friggin cure for cancer. The ironic thing is that its not cancer that is killing Brenda, its a complication of the bone marrow transplant she got called Graft vs Host where the host organism fought the incoming bone marrow and weakened her lungs and they coudn't reverse the damage. She is amazing woman who was so strong, so upbeat, so giving and so inspirational. If you'd like to read more about her, see her myspace account if you can log into it:
http://profile. myspace.com/ index.cfm? fuseaction= user.viewprofile&friendid=10230644&MyToken=ee6f7c5c- 5a87-4c34- 81b2-755d3a5ce0f 7

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