Heaps of Hope

photo by g baden on stock.xchnge

Five years ago, my little sister had a brilliant idea.

“Let’s do this,” she said, turning the laptop so I could see the screen.

At first, all I could see was pink. Lots of pink. Like a flamingo had exploded pink. And I thought,

Oh, Lordy! What is this girl getting us into now!

Because I like to pretend it’s my sister who’s the trouble-maker, when we all know it’s me. I’m just too quick and crafty to be caught.

Except that once. Yeah. That sucked. Sorry, Mom and Dad.

After my retinas had regrouped, I saw she was referring to the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure (which didn’t have the super fancy, trademarked name back then, you know, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth), a 60-mile walk over the course of three days through our choice of fourteen cities.

And the rest is history.

Except there’s a piece of this history, I need to talk about today. Her name is Holly Walton.

3-Day Boston ladies even make
trash duty look good!

In 2009, my little sister thought it’d be a brilliant idea for us to do two 3-Day events in one year. Which is chump change, really, because there are 3-Dayers who do three events (or more) every year.

We went to Boston that summer and met the most remarkable women (and Frank). One of these was a recent cancer ass-kicker. Holly was still reeling from her battle with cancer, but her will to live and her capacity for hope were left unscathed.

She is one of my heroes.

After her own battle, she began a nonprofit to help women still fighting. Heaps of Hope, Inc. helps women not only deal with the emotional upheaval of a breast cancer diagnosis, but offers financial assistance for medications, hospital bills, integrative therapies, transportation costs, and even grocery gift cards.

My cup runneth over with the awesomeness that is Holly and Heaps of Hope.

Good thing I ordered some Mug Cake Refill Sets from my friend Mo, who held a month-long Tastefully Simple fundraiser to help me support Heaps of Hope. So my cup may be runneth-ing over, but at least it’s cake.

And thanks to Mo, you get one more day to get your own cake. Cake for a good cause is totally calorie free.