Here we are at Year 3 of L2BBC. I never thought that when I started this challenge on my own in 2017 that we would be launching the third year with 190 + LIFTERS.
This challenge has great personal meaning to me. I was diagnosed with monoclonal gammopathy undetermind signifcance (MGUS) which is a precursor to multiple myeloma back in September of 2016. After my diagnosis I felt that I needed to do something and in February of 2017 Lift 2 Beat Blood Cancer was born.
Lift 2 Beat Blood Cancer was a personal challenge of lifting 10,000 lbs for each of the 137 types of blood cancer. It was tough, but I finished at the end of September 2016, which also happens to be Blood Cancer Awareness month.
By the end of 2016 people were asking if I was going to do the challenge again in 2017 and asked if they could join me. By the time we launched in 2018 we had just about 150 LIFTERS. What a year! These people kicked ass, LIFTED a ton of weight - 65 million pounds in fact and raised a ton of money for blood cancer.
In July of 2018, my MGUS progressed to multiple myeloma and on December 20th, 2018 I had a stem cell transplant and am currently recovering from this awful disease.
Here we are - 2019 and we are just shy of 200 LIFTERS from all over the world. I couldn’t be more proud.
Our goal hasn’t changed - to LIFT a ton of weight to bring awareness and raise funds to find a cure for ALL types of blood cancer.