I am so excited to announce that I will be doing a hike in the Grand Canyon this year with the The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation as part of their Moving Mountains for Multiple Myeloma Program!

I am doing this hike with my dear friend Alesia Wiggs!

Alesia and I have been friends since nursing school over 30+ years ago! Alesia was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma in 2018. She had a bone marrow transplant in early 2019. I am very happy to announce that she is doing very well and is currently in remission!

I received a text from Alesia on the morning of New Year’s Eve, 2019 telling me about this hike and that she wanted me to do it with her. We had tossed around the idea of doing a girl’s hiking trip in the Grand Canyon a few years ago but several other things came up in life and we just had not been able to make it happen. But now it is on our calendar for 2020!

Some people ask me "what is multiple myeloma"? Well, it is a rare form of blood cancer that affects about 30,000 people a year in the US and currently there is no true "cure" as of yet. But, thanks to the work of organizations like The MMRF 11 new drugs have been released for the treatment of myeloma in the last 10 years – this is unprecedented in the world of oncology!

The MMRF gives patients like my friend Alesia hope that a treatment will be available for them when they need it.