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Health & Fitness

Where's Waldenstrom's

Meet team 'Where's Waldenstrom's'

Our team is called "Where's Waldenstroms?", and our reason to Relay is rooted in my band, The Lennys.  The band is made up of two of my sons- Jeremy and John, longtime bandmate Cory, and myself.  We've now been playing for 9 years together, and have always been willing to donate our services to various charities when opportunities arose.

Eventually in 2009 we decided to 'adopt' our own cause.  It wasn't hard to choose Relay for Life, based on our personal experiences:  my family has lost both of my grandfathers and other extended family members to the disease, Cory's father passed away in 2005, and I was diagnosed with an incurable blood cancer called Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia (or WM) in 2008.

We started by contacting Relay and volunteering as entertainment, but then went the next step to also form a fundraising team made up of family and friends.  The team is called "Where's Waldenstroms" in a semi-humorous bid to call attention to my own particular cancer since it's fairly rare and we've never found anyone else at the Relays who has it, or even heard of it.  And even though I have found a support group that does its own fundraisers specifically for WM cure research, we continue to participate in the Relay for Life since cancer has affected all of us in different ways, and the American Cancer Society is dedicated to helping all of us.

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The Lennys will be performing at Relay once again this year, and we will also be offering anyone else there a chance to sing with us!  Contact the Relay for details.  The Where's Waldenstrom's team will also be there circling the track- we've even been known to do a few singalongs while walking 'with a little help from our friends'

We're happy to be participating in Relay for Life once again this year, although we would be even happier if there were no need to do it!

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Dave Perrin

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