My name is Samantha Cushing. I was diagnosed with Hodgkin?s disease while I was pregnant with our third child, Liam. Due to the pregnancy, I was referred to Stanford University Medical Center. After a couple of surgical biopsies and a long two weeks, Liam was induced and was born five weeks early in perfect health. I have an amazing husband, Wil who was the primary caregiver for not only Liam, but our other two children, Chloe and Wyatt.We, and when I say we, I mean my family and I, immediately underwent 12 weeks of chemotherapy at Stanford University?s Cancer Clinic and five weeks of daily radiation treatments.

Team in Training was somehow always in the background ? a pamphlet here, an article in a magazine, someone wearing a shirt ? you get the idea. During my treatments, I was enrolled at Fresno Pacific University and I did not want to stop attending my classes. My cohort was instrumental in how I dealt with our illness ? I had constant well wishes and prayers. One night during a discussion regarding ethics, a classmate and alumni of the TNT program, Tamara Heeres, asked if I would consider being an honoree. My response was quick ? I was going to run! Needless to say, even after being told by my oncologist that I would walk and it would have to be a half marathon, I still thought that I had enough of that ?high-school athlete? in me to go for broke. I was wrong about the running, but not about my very being. I enrolled in September ?06, just a month after finishing radiation. Slowly but surely, with the help of my coaches, mentors, teammates and husband, I walked a half marathon in Orlando, Florida at Walt Disney World, raising $4000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society on January 4th ? nearly a year since my initial diagnosis. Because of the research the society is able to fund, I am here today. I am a wife, a mother, a friend and an advocate. I walk because I can not walk away!