…108 Days Until Race Day
WARNING!!!!!
I beg you to please read until the end, but it won’t be easy.
There are days when I wake up and immediately know who I’m dedicating the day’s run to. On those particular days, certain kids speak to me.
Today, Rorie spoke to me.
I’ll eliminate the suspense and let you know that Rorie WOULD be 7 years old now. Instead, she will forever be 5.
Diagnosed at age 3 with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia w/ Hypodiploid, Rorie’s odds were stacked against her from the beginning as the survival rate for her cancer sits at 5%.
There is NOTHING easy about this story. I don’t know how her mother, Savannah and her family was able to endure this along with Rorie.
During her 2 1/2 years treatment, Rorie had not one, not two but THREE bone marrow transplants. Her 1st occurred on April 23, 2013. Her 2nd happened on July 29th 2013, her 4th birthday. The final bone marrow transplant was on April 26th, 2014.
Because of cancer, Rorie, had she lived, would never have had kids due to excessive radiation and chemo.
Because of cancer and the poison she was forced to ingest to try to save her life, Rorie had several seizures.
Because of cancer and chemotherapy, Rorie lost weight then gained excessive amounts of weight.
Rorie went weeks without eating. She threw up constantly. She lost her beautiful blonde hair.
She was not able to walk due to pain from chemo and she contracted a lung disease due to chemo.
Precious Rorie earned angel wings on August 3rd, 2014…one day before her sister’s birthday.
Rorie’s mom, Savannah shares this about her brave, princess warrior: “Rorie was a fierce little firecracker princess. She was wise for her age and was very determined all the way to the end to do things her way and on her own. If you helped her she would redo it so she could do it all by herself.
She was my world! i miss her sweet raspy girly-girl voice and style, daily. She rocked her 5 years on Earth more than most people do their whole life. She had Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center shut her down because she had so many people get tested for a bone marrow match that they ran out of test kits in 1 day!” – Savannah
Today’s run was a double run and I had NOTHING in the tank…except Rorie. Man, did she come through for me. My legs were heavy, my body was tight, my breathing was labored…the only thing positive about my run is that I finished. Why and how did I finish? Because when I awoke today, Rorie spoke to me and she said, “I couldn’t walk because of the pain of chemo, but you can run, and together, we can fly.”
Rorie, we didn’t fly fast, but I felt you in the wind.
Who will you meet tomorrow?
#Snowdrop175AcrossItaly #UMS17 #ABC13 #Evamor #TheNew93Q
Leave a Reply