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letter from Edith Speed...A
letter from Edith Speed...
It's been four years and three successful Bowling For Boobies events since I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. When I think back now about the experience, it feels surreal, at once like something that happened long time ago, and just yesterday. I've come out of the experience with a great deal more wisdom, a sense of what is really important in the world, and an appreciation of every day as a gift.
When I realized my insurance wouldn't cover many of the expenses I'd incurred, my friends Terri Lyman & Pug LaHart came up with the Bowling For Boobies idea. We didn't think it would raise as much money in that first year as it did. But due to the love of my friends & family and the help of The Soroptimist International of The Verdugos club, the event was a success and I was floored by the support. It is difficult to describe the shift in my emotions as I went from a place of despair to one of hope. Thanks to my community pulling together, I feel very connected, I feel amazing love for other people, I feel I have no choice but to survive, and I feel so strongly driven to continue to work raising funds to help others.
I am so pleased the Soroptimist International of The Verdugos want to continue this work with me, and I am even more pleased they want to continue the model created by that first Bowling For Boobies event and continue to award the funds directly to help a local woman who is dealing with her own battle with Breast Cancer. SIOTV has demonstrated sincere understanding that it isn't necessarily the truly underprivileged who need our help. Very often, a woman such as myself, previously very healthy and carrying what she thought was adequate health coverage, can feel defeated by the bills which either are not covered by insurance or are an ancillary cost of being sick.
Pulling off an ever growing event like Bowling For Boobies is a lot of work, but what a rewarding lot of work. I get teary when the event is in full swing and I see all these wonderful people having fun and being so generous to help another human being.