May 17, 2009
Dear Komen supporters,
I am Adam Westerman. Last year, when I was 11 years old, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. At the time, I thought she might die and I was terrified. As time went on, I learned more about breast cancer and I learned that my mom has a good chance of surviving for at least five years and, I hope, for a long time after.
Our family is lucky. My mom received great care. She is done with her chemotherapy now and is just taking one pill a day for the next five years. She says she wants to be alive to see my children.
I just want her to be alive to watch me play baseball. I want her to be alive to come see me in my plays and to tease me because she knows I am in the back messing around with the other drummers during our school band concerts. I want her to live so she can help me choose which college is right for me and so she can take those goofy photos moms take when their children go to prom. After I graduate high school and college, travel the world, and maybe after I find the right person to marry — then she can give me parenting tips.
Last year, as our family watched my mom go through chemotherapy, she asked me to walk with her in the Race for the Cure. I agreed because I wanted to support her and I wanted her to do something that made me feel I could help.
My mom looks like her normal self again and she says she wants people to treat her like the crisis is over. Even though she seems so much better, I still think about what it would be like if she wasn’t here. I think about all of the kids whose moms are getting diagnosed every day, and I want to do something to make sure their moms have the same kind of care mine got. I don’t want anyone’s mom to die because she didn’t have the chance to live. I don’t want anyone’s mom to die because she couldn’t afford a mammogram.
This year I am walking to try to raise money for kids who don’t yet even know they are going to have to worry about their moms.
Why am I asking you to give more?
Breast cancer doesn’t take a break when the economy tanks. Breast cancer doesn’t care about the stock market or about jobs or about numbers on a chart. I know that everyone is thinking about how to spend less money than they had before. If you donate a little more this year, it will cover for people who can’t donate at all. If you give a little bit more money, it might be the year they find a cure or find a way to make it so people who have breast cancer don’t have to go through what my mom had to go through. I am lucky because my mom is here. I am asking you to help make other kids lucky that their moms get the same chance to find their cancer early like my mom did.
May I count on you?
I am donating $100 to myself out of my bank account this year, but I don’t have a job yet so I am walking in the race and asking people who have jobs to sponsor me or our team.
You can donate to me, Adam Westerman, or to our team, Pledges for EDJS which has Eddie (my mom), Dottie (our friend and my mom’s “cancer bully” who mentored her and is a survivor), Joanie (our friend whose breast cancer came back on her lung, but her tumor markers are very good) and Susan, a friend of my mom’s who was recently diagnosed and is starting radiation next month. I hope to walk with you at the race next month, but in case you can’t come, please donate again and again.
Thanks for your consideration,
Adam Westerman
Kid’s Race Grand Marshal
Komen Puget Sound Race for the Cure
Eddie Westerman's Weblog 