Natasha de Lange

AIDS / Lifecycle.
http://tinyurl.com/Natashadelange

Living in a country where HIV has been named a chronic disease, rather than a terminal one, BLOWS MY MIND. My mother worked from home as a pediatrician and treated AIDS orphans as a matter of course. The idea that an entire generation will likely be wiped out by something that is treatable - but only by privilege - is beyond unconscionable.

Vineman (for Continuum).

Nike Women's Marathon (for Leukemia and Lymphoma Assn).

NYC Marathon (for Fred's Team).
http://tinyurl.com/3p4lnka

I moved to the US from South Africa in 2003 when my mother survived an operation that lasted 11 hours, which involved partial resection of her left lung, and the installation of a section of plastic aorta.

She survived for 7 years in Northern California. We supported each other through my international relocation, her abdominal tumor, my scholarship applications, her starting an online cancer resource center, my community college, her brain tumor, my three simultaneous jobs, the removal of her left lung, my Berkeley application, her recurrent cancer, my first half marathon, her second type of cancer, my first marathon, her experimental high dose chemotherapy, me realizing that my dream was to become an advocate, and her will to live.