twelve to eighteen months

Could you imagine if all you had was twelve to eighteen months…to live, to breathe, to give your children all they need to grow into adults, to be with friends, to love…

…to live.

One year is five hundred twenty five thousand, six hundred minute (525,600). That sounds like a lot of time, but not if it’s all you have.

I watched a good friend live every one of those 525,600 minutes. And then she was gone. It was fast, too fast.

Last year I started to hear about a girl named Jen. She is a lot like I was 4 years ago…same age, two boys the same age mine were, diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Our stories diverged quickly though. Both stories were sudden, scary and overwhelming, but mine ended quickly, with the best outcome I could hope for. Jen’s hasn’t ended yet, but it did not go the same way as mine.

I hid my journey until it was over. Jen invited the world to be part of her’s.

I watched. I hoped. I crossed my fingers and toes and arms so tight…I believed she, like me, was going to be alright. It might be a bit tougher, take a bit longer, but she was going to be fine. It was just too much to believe anything else.

She’s not fine. Not ok, not health wise anyway. She was given her sentence – 12 to 18 months.

And still she fights, and her community fights for her, trying to raise enough money for Jen to attend a clinical trial and maybe, just maybe, kick cancer in the ass.

No risk factors. No reason to believe this was coming. Nothing she could have done to stop it…

I don’t know Jen, but she is me. She is my story with a different middle. She is my biggest fear come to life, the bullet I dodged at the same age. She is my hero in how she’s handling this. She is living her 525,600+ minutes with the kind of determination and grace I desperately hope I would have. She is not quitting, not waiting for her minutes to run out.

Help her fight. Help her win. Help her raise her boys to men, dance at their weddings and one day hold her grandchildren in her arms.

If we all do a little bit, it will be a lot.

I gave today. And I will give $50 from every single sign up for the What If Conference and BoomCrush and each wedding I book from now until Jen gets her clinical trial. It’s not a lot, but it will help. It will all help.

Jen is each of us, Jen is me. I am Jen. And I’m going to help her fight, however I can.