My Honored Teammate Erica

My honored teammate this season is Erica Barth.

I met Erica early in November when I was at the Silver Spring, MD American Cancer Society office one day for a meeting. I had forgotten my lunch at home and was standing at the front desk consulting the Chinese food menu to find something to eat when a young, beautiful blond haired girl walked into the office with her boyfriend. As I stood looking at the menu, I heard this young girl as our Admin. person, Gissella, if we had any wigs available in the office. We do have a wig room in each one of our offices so women can come in and receive free, brand new wigs; however, Gissella had to let this young woman know that the wig room was becoming very low in its stock. Before the girl could leave, I introduced myself to the girl and asked her what kind of wig she was looking for. She told me her name was Erica, and as I had expected, she was looking for a long blond hair wig, just like the hair I saw her with. I reiterated to her what Gissella said about the wig room, but told her that we had just had an event with the Washington Redskins and I thought there was one long hair blond wig leftover in the Vienna, VA office and I could check to see and let her know. Erica was excited and told me that would be wonderful. I then got to talking to her, asking her what kind of cancer she was being treated for and asked her if she needed any other resources. She told me she was just diagnosed in September with Hodgkins-Lymphoma and would be beginning chemotherapy in the next coming weeks. In addition to a wig, her biggest concern was that she lacks health insurance. I was able to give her a bunch of different resources--including financial assistance information from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. By the end of our talk, she thanked me over and over for being so kind and letting her know about more information in the 5 minute conversation than anything she has been told in the past 2 months. A hug later and she was gone.

After verifying that the blond wig I had in mind was still in the Vienna office, I made arrangements with Erica to send her the wig in the mail, as she lived an hour away from the closest office to her. A week later, Erica left me the best voicemail I think I have ever received to date. On the voicemail, Erica, in her so cheery voice, said 'Hello Sarah, this is Erica! I am just calling to let you know my boyfriend was waiting for me yesterday at my house with the package you sent me and I put on the wig and it is just so perfect and beautiful! It is so perfect that I started crying and I know it sounds silly because you think it is just a wig, but it's not just a wig. It's perfect timing because I just started to lose my hair and now I don't have to be embarrassed when I leave the house. I can't thank you enough, you are an angel and the nicest person I have ever met. I would love to take you out to lunch or for a drink or something, I can't tell you how happy this has made me. I can't wait to hear back from you, or I will call you later in the week.'
I can't tell you how much this made my heart literally smile. I immediately called her back and thanked her for her kind words and she refuted the thank you saying, no, THANK YOU. She then reiterated pretty much everything she said before, but also added when I said, you really like the wig?, she says, are you kidding?! I feel SEXY in it! Again, my heart smiled! Do you know how HUGE it is for a woman undergoing chemo to say they feel sexy?!
I then asked, in lieu of a lunch or drink, told Erica about my en devours with TNT and asked her to be my honored teammate. She said she would absolutely love to be.

It might seem odd that I have taken a random stranger as an honored teammate. Erica really touched me and I just feel so motivated by her spirit. I also feel a connection to her, she is turning 26 years old in January and never thought something like this could happen to her. It made everything a little more real to me--ironic because I am around cancer patients all the time. Here she was, almost a mirror image of me, facing chemotherapy, losing her hair, and battling to cancer.

Erica will be joining me and my team at our honored teammate picnic on January 10th with the entire Team In Training Spring Season. I think it will be a great way for her to see how much she is not alone in her cancer fight and to see how many people are out there fighting for her as much as they can.

Please help Erica's fight and consider donating to my efforts. Your donation, no matter how large or small, could help Erica's financial burdens through the Leukemia and Lymphoma's financial support system which you can read about here: http://www.leukemia-lymphoma.org/all_page.adp?item_id=4599

Please stop by my donation page and spread the word: http://pages.teamintraining.org/nca/cmc09/sness


Happy running!

Don't forget to smile :)

GO TEAM!