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The 2015 Your Life with RA team

Someone told me that this year, I had the best reason not to do the Walk to Fight Arthritis, what with still recovering from the crazy health situation. To me, that means there are so many more reasons to do it.

I’m alive.

Having built up enough strength and stamina to do a 5K before I got sick had, according to my doctors, a lot to do with why I survived and am bouncing back pretty fast.

I’m bouncing back pretty fast. A month ago, I barely had enough energy to sit in my wheelchair for two hours. This week, I went back to work.

We’ve done the Walk for two years. That means it’s tradition!

Earlier this year, I worked with The Arthritis Society on enhancing accessibility for The Walk to Fight Arthritis. I want to see our work implemented.

With the exception of some numbness in my hands, I got through a traumatic health experience with very little impact in terms of my rheumatoid arthritis. That has a lot to do with taking Biologics. These drugs have made such a huge difference in the lives of so many with inflammatory arthritis. They don’t work for everyone, so raising money for research is very important.

This year is very personal for me. It is about celebrating the fact that I’m still here. I’m grateful that several of my friends are joining me on the Your Life with RA team again this year. We are a bit late out of the gate and that’s reflected in a more modest fundraising goal. As always, the hope is that we will blow right past that and this is where you come in.

I’d be tremendously grateful if you would consider donating either to me personally or to the Your Life with RA team. Any amount is welcome, no matter how small. Of course, if you want to donate pots of money, we’d be more than willing to accept that, too!

Two caveats about the Walk: Because I’m still recovering from the ICU experience, I’m leaving it until the day to decide whether I’m doing the 1K of the 5K. Also, if it rains I’ll postpone walking and do it in my neighbourhood on a dry day. I’m committed to this cause, but not so committed that I’m willing to risk getting sick again.