It's been nearly 10 years since my last fundraising effort in the fight against cancer. Admittedly, it's been too long.
In 2009, I was offered a sponsor’s exemption to run the Boston Marathon supporting the Livestrong Foundation. My Mom had just passed in January after a fierce and courageous fight with lung cancer. Our family was healing and moving forward as best as we could. The timing was right for me to take on that challenge and it was an experience I'll never forget in many ways.
Many of you supported me back then and I had the privilege and honor of running Boston with the names of your loved ones - nearly 100 cancer fighters, survivors and fallen warriors - written on my yellow jersey and I felt as though they all ran with me that day, even carried me at times, and were a constant reminder and inspiration from beginning to end. I'm forever grateful for that experience.
Fast forward almost 10 years and my mission is the same - to honor cancer fighters - those currently fighting, those that have beaten cancer and those that have fallen - while raising money in support of cancer research with the hope that 10 years from now, our mission is complete and we need to find a new cause because cancer is no longer a constant threat and destructive force to people we love.
The support was overwhelming last time around and I'm hopeful we can rally once again. This year, I'm actively training for two half-marathons. The first one is on November 17th and the other is December 8th. Once again, I plan to wear a race day jersey donned with the names of the warriors you request through your donations.
Friends, family, neighbors, co-workers...there is room for all to join me again and the more the better!
This time around, the foundation is "Five For The Fight", an ambitious cancer philanthropy that is meaningful to me because it is founded and led by my current employer, Qualtrics. The fact that a cause so personal to me has intersected with my professional life is truly poetic.
Qualtrics has raised the bar on corporate philanthropy and is "all in" on the fight against cancer and finding a cure through fundraising for research. I'm proud to be a small part of this amazing team!
https://www.5forthefight.org/
Please consider contributing whatever you can to this campaign and let me know who to honor on my race jersey. It means so much to so many and trust that with every dollar donated, you are truly making a difference in the fight against cancer.
Grateful once again...JZ
