It is hard for me to believe that on 3/24/24, I will be celebrating my 3rd Re-Birthday! That is what I call the day I collapsed at work, arrested 3 times, was in the ICU 8 days and lead to my diagnosis of a very rare type of Stage 4 metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. No one expected me to live 3 days, much less 3 years! I am thankful for every day! This year I am celebrating my Re-Birthday the day before, by walking in the Lung Cancer Initiative’s Raleigh LUNGe Forward Walk. I am hoping again to raise a lot of money for Lung Cancer Research and Survivor Support Services. I am still in this world with God’s grace, excellent care (family, friends, and medical community), and state of the art medical research. At this point, I have exhausted all FDA approved treatments and am currently in a Stage 1 clinical trial. I hope you will support me and my team - Elissa’s Lions, as I continue to skate on the edge of science! (People have asked if there is a reason I named my team Elissa’s Lions. Well, actually, there is. Many people who study medicine are taught when developing a differential diagnosis-‘When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras.” I have a very rare type of non-small cell lung cancer-a zebra, and as my dear friend, Aaron, a physician, pointed out–Lions EAT zebras! So Lions, it is!)