Monday, May 5, 2008

5K PR?

I was working for Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan in January of 1997.  It was a Saturday morning when my pager went off.  When I returned the page to the Attorney General's home telephone number, I was advised that Jim and his wife Marie discovered their 12 year old daughter Annie had passed away in her sleep from an undetected brain tumor.  Annie was the youngest of their six children.  


At the time Jim Ryan himself was battling non-Hodgkins lymphoma and was deep into an intensive chemotherapy regimen that was doing its best to destroy his body.  With the loss of Annie he could have easily had his spirit destroyed as well.  He didn't though.  He survived his cancer and a second bout a few years later and he and his wife and their family have honored Annie's life every day since her passing with their tireless efforts on behalf of others.  

Earlier this year Jim and Marie lost another of their children, their youngest son Patrick. Despite the pain of another unexplained loss, they continue to move forward with their efforts to raise money for causes which honor the memory of both Annie and Patrick.

One such effort is the Annie Run.  This May 18th  will be the 9th Annual running of this 5K race. Proceeds from this event benefit the Midwest Children's Brain Tumor Center at Lutheran General Hospital.  The event is held in Elmhurst, Illinois along the Prairie Path and is flat and fast.  Good place to post a 5K PR while benefiting a great cause.   Please come run, bring friends and get a new 5K PR.

Here's the website for more info:  http://annierun.com


2 comments:

Rick said...

I would really like to do this one. It would be great to run the IL Prarie Path again and it sounds like a great cause. However, this is graduation day when JPD becomes a JD.

JP said...

Congrats to Jess. That's an important cause as well!