turned to say bye to Damion, he looked at me and
were honestly astounded that I was there actually
had asked if I was okay, and he actually posed that
running through the course. After knocking another
question to me with such sincerity and concern in
OCR off my list, we were hanging out at the back
his eyes. I could tell it wasn’t pity; he was generally
of Deaters truck and I was telling them about how
concerned about my well-being. And that’s when I
my upcoming treatment was going to have me
knew that these people were real, and it was great to
locked away in a room by myself for a week after
know that even though I was practically a stranger
ingesting a radioiodine pill to kill off any residual
to them, I had people who actually cared and were
cancerous cells left behind after the surgery. And not
concerned about me.
one week later after the event was over, I received
Exactly one week after the Super Spartan the next
OCR on my list was the Tough Mudder that was
held down at the Miami Homestead Speedway; and
what happened after this event is what cemented
the fact that I came to call this group my family.
During the race Jason, Deater, Ashley, Amanda and
I were just running along and Deater just
happened to have asked about the
fresh scar on my neck. And
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then I went through the story
of my cancer, the surgery
and how recent it was, they
several packages in the mail. Which was really
bizarre because I knew I hadn’t ordered anything
to be shipped to me and as soon as I opened those
packages my heart dropped. I couldn’t stop smiling
the rest of that day. While it was one of the simplest
gestures, it honestly touched my heart and I would
never forget that. Since Ashley, Deater and Amanda
knew that I would be going into seclusion for my
radiation therapy, they actually went ahead and
shipped me an assortment of gifts to kill the time.
I remember pulling out a Rubik’s cube, a Las Vegas
puzzle, coloring books, some puzzles, crayons, the