On November 7, I'm going to breathe deep, and I'm going to walk for my life. Literally. I'm joining Run Walk Breathe, and I want to tell you why.

In 2023, I was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer. I smoked for 40 years. I grew up in a house with radon. I worked around silica dust. I even lived near groundwater contaminated by Manhattan Project nuclear waste. I carried more risk than I could count.

But here's the part that matters. A low-dose CT scan caught my cancer. Screening is the reason I'm still here to write this. Since then I've been through chemo, radiation, Gamma Knife surgery for a brain met, and two clinical trials that shrank my tumors. Therapies that barely existed a few years ago are the reason I get more sunsets, more time with my family, more life.

That's what Run Walk Breathe is about. Every step raises awareness for the leading cause of cancer deaths in the world, and funds the research that keeps people like me alive.

So on November 7, I'll be out there. Not as a statistic. As a survivor who refuses to stay quiet.

Will you walk with me, or support the cause? Every step and every dollar matters.

Life should take your breath away. Not lung cancer.