On September 23, 2023, our family joined other Bay Area families to host the 3rd annual ‘Fast Track to a Cure’ 5K walk and run benefitting Oligo Nation. I wanted to post about the event right after the fact but went straight from the walk to a work trip overseas. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind few weeks!
Here are a few reflections about this year’s event -
People genuinely care, and are so incredibly generous. Family and friends rallied and came through around the globe for us this year. For our Bay Area event, relatives from New York, Arizona, and Southern California traveled to walk with us in person, and our relatives in Michigan organized a parallel walk on Sunday. Thank you so much to the Astras and Currier sides of the family! We had friends and family show up to the walk who drove up to two hours from across the greater Bay Area to participate on a Saturday morning. Thank you! Our youngest participant this year was just two months old…incredible! Friends took the time to organize walks in many cities around the globe, sharing photos during the weekend and lifting us up with their efforts and dedication. To all of you who walked with us, from Michigan, to Washington DC and Alexandria, VA, to Berlin, New York City, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Ohio, Turkey, Kazakhstan, and places in between, thank you! And to friends and relatives who were unable to walk, thank you for supporting in other ways, including sharing or liking posts on social media, sending words of encouragement, and donating generously. So many people participated and donated this year who are connected to our family through my sisters, my aunt, my parents, or friends…including individuals I’ve never met.
I am so grateful to each of you.
The San Francisco Bay Area ‘Fast Track to a Cure’ event has become so much more than finding a cure for one person. It’s so much bigger – six families with individuals affected by oligodendroglioma participated in the walk this year. And...so many people without a family member affected walked in solidary as well. There were so many people I didn’t know personally this year compared to last. This represented a precious opportunity to connect with others affected by this form of brain cancer. It also underscores the urgency of working together. There are literally billions of of individuals affected by cancer around the world, but even more with multiple reasons and motivation to mobilize for a cure. Thank you so much to those of you who show up.
Volunteers are true heroes. So much credit to my sister Detta for largely spearheading efforts for months to put the walk together. She was joined this year by our new and dear friend Adriel. They both brought their organizational and management prowess in full force to the effort, together with small and mighty team at Oligo Nation. Thank you to Adriel’s family, to my family, and to our volunteers for all the quiet work you did to make the event a success. So many of the small details made a world of difference. We had a raffle this year at the conclusion of the walk, and so many donors stepped up to provide incredible prizes. Thank you to all of our donors, including my sister and brother-in-law Monyca and Art and my parents! Thank you to Baur and Alan for the support. Thank you to Brock Green, the founder of Oligo Nation, for making the effort to come personally to the event for the second year in a row. I’m so grateful to Brock for his relentless dedication to finding a cure to oligodendroglioma.
There are a number of organizations that organize 5K walks and other events benefitting brain cancer research. I’ve become acquainted with most of the ones that operate in the Bay Area over the past two years and have participated in several walks. The next one I’m a part of (and on the volunteer organizational committee for!) is the ABTA 5K on November 4th in San Francisco. If you're in the Bay Area and would like to join, you can sign up here! Whether it’s Oligo Nation, ABTA, or other nonprofits, I don’t believe that these organizations are competing for funding; rather, their efforts are complimentary to one another. At each of these events, I’m always astounded by the energy, the hope, and the goodwill generated by families and friends coming together. Many times, our doctors walk with us in solidarity. I’m so moved when I meet other brain cancer survivors at these events, and also touched to tears when I see people walking in honor of a loved one who has passed away.
Speaking for the extended Currier family, will continue to walk, continue to advocate, and continue to come together to accelerate efforts to a cure. To each of you who’ve joined us in these efforts over the past three years, thank you. And...save the date to join us again on September 21, 2024!
Photo: Astras-Currier Family
September 23, 2023; Marina Bay, San Francisco Bay Trail, Richmond, CA
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