Our Role is Set!

First of all I want to thank everyone who has supported Alex and I as Team Motivated Motion!
The old and new friends who have come to support us is huge!
We worked really really hard because you all made such great efforts to encourage us this far.

We said we would use this blog as long as the team lasts and we are committed to the walk.

We have already signed our 2011 commitment to participate in the walk.

For those interested in joining the team and training with Lynn and/or Alex for the 2011 event will be able to register early, and we will pass on this info when it is available.

We are continuing the training through the fall and then the winter, with the strong training focus to be ramped up sometime near the end of February.

If you wish to join the team as a walker, or crew member(non walker) you can do that! We would love that!
In early 2011 Lynn will get commitment from corporate sponsors to match the team's fundraising efforts. So we will have some corporate back-up for our efforts.

Join the team early and start the fundraising in the New Year, begin the training this year, and prepare to have the biggest blast you could possibly have!

The team did not make its fundraising limit. We were close. But close does not count. We both had the opportunity to have another two day responsibility for our efforts so we could partake of the whole experience.

Alex made a decision this Wednesday to go home, as there was a pressing problem with his primer design program he wrote for Amber and the simple fix became quite difficult this week, as he tried to fix this remotely and it just could not come together. So I felt it was meant to be that he go home so he could easily deal with the problem there.

I (Lynn) am still confirmed as a media walker. But I just missed my goal to walk, so I am taking on another role. I will still be interviewed by the media, and then I will take on the crew role and be able to work at specific stations over the two days. I am thrilled with this!
When it was looking like I may have to walk alone without my team mate I was a bit nervous. Now I get to partake of the whole experience and be part of the big group and still talk to the news and represent Newmarket, and I get to support the walkers in a huge way!
My job will now actually start on Friday!
I will also have more opportunity to take photos and tweet and send Facebook messages about the experience! I will be armed with my trusty camera and video camera and extra batteries and chargers and memory cards to cover the event!

Lynn will be interviewed by the media on the event days, so please watch for her on the Toronto News stations!

I will have a really clear picture of the whole of the experience, as I will spend three days helping out instead of two and I will see the back end and participant end, and be able to share the experience to be even a better team leader for next year!

We so appreciate everything you all have done and the support you all have given us! Please follow the blog here, or Lynn Lundy Tucker on Facebook over the weekend! or @WitchAmy on Twitter to get the latest news about the weekend event!

Bless you all for getting us this far! Please remember us next year, as the Team Motivated Motion remains alive for 2011! Please consider joining us as a walker or crew for next year!

Thanks so much,

Lynn Tucker
and
Alex Tucker

The Last Minute Canvassing

We have received lots of local donations and support. We are trying really hard to get our donation level up to commit to walk two days instead of one.
The more we raise the more km's we will be able to walk!
We are walking all over our neighbourhood going door-to-door to connect with the folks in our training area.
We have been received well by everyone! It is a wonderful experience to get so much encouragement from our town.
If you see us walking please say, "Hi" and ask us any questions you wish!

We really appreciate any value of support.
$10.00 is the minimum the charity requires to give an official receipt, but if you give less that is absolutely fine, and you will get an invoice for the donation from the charity. It gets sent by email.

If you don't have an email address to have the invoice sent to, Lynn will bring an invoice sent to her email on your behalf, right to your home!

If you want to make a credit card donation, we have forms for that too, or we can give you an info card so you can make a secure web donation right to the charity with our participation number attached!

Thanks to everyone in the neighbourhood who has supported us these last few weeks through our door-to-door canvassing.

Please watch the local news this weekend, and perhaps you will get to see us interviewed as media walkers for the event!

We really appreciate the web donations sent in by friends too! Some friends have made multiple donations over the past months and we are so grateful for the support.

We have had a few supporters we met who are interested in joining our team next year! If you also would like to join us please let us know. You can contact Lynn at:
motivatedmotion [at] sympatico [dot] ca
We can begin prepping for next year in February!
We have been notified that our official pages will remain current to the end of this year, so folks can make donations through the pages and see what we are up to right until the end of this year.

Our donation metres are growing in leaps and bounds. They won't quite reflect what we have collected this week, as some donations are held back a few days for admin. Most donations show up on the metre within 48hours. If you donated and you got no receipt sent in email, please contact Lynn at the above email address and she will call the admin office and make a query on your behalf. Please give your email address and telephone number in the email so an official rep can call once Lynn makes the query.

Thanks again!

Lynn and Al

Lynn Gets Asked To Be A Media Walker For The September Event!

I am so excited!
I have been asked to be a Media Walker for the Weekend to End Women's Cancer Walk in Toronto, on September 11th and 12th.
I was contacted week-before-last. I thought about it for a couple of days, and then I accepted the offer.
On the Walk news agencies and TV stations will contact me via cell phone and find out where I am on the route and then make their way to me and walk with Alex and I and ask us questions, and I am to share my story.
My story is in the margin on the right side of this blog...just click my photo and you can read the story.

I will admit to everyone that I am training well! But my life is not back to normal by any means. I still have nurses every morning to help me get my day started. Once I am rolling I am fine, but I do need a bit of help getting showered, and getting dressed. Once I am done with that I only need help again at bedtime, and my family is home to help me then. Alex joined my team to keep me safe, and to be a support walker who knows my medical needs and everything to do with my medication and my limitations. He trains with me so we know I have someone with me at all times. I could not do the walk without him. Where I am strong and able to walk, I am contrasted by a crazy shoulder injury that happened before the cancer surgeries that has hampered my recovery. The training has kept up my morale while I have been lame to be able to accomplish anything else except the walking!

Obviously most folks would have not even tried to train for the walk. But for me something inside me was like a voice telling me that if I don't train to do this walk and make a serious effort with the training, my mind and emotions would not survive the sense of entrapment I have as a result of my frozen shoulder. I have never been so beat down by a physical injury and the recovery from surgeries in all of my days until now. So I grasp hard at my daily accomplishments in the training!

We are now doing 10kms a day in our training, and all of it is on residential streets in Newmarket, with impressive steep hills along the trek. We basically perimeter a major part of our town. You can find us walking the Perimeter of Yonge St to Main and boundaried between Green Lane and Eagle Streets on the North and South. This Saturday folks can find me walking all over downtown Toronto starting at Union Station around 11AM, while taking part in a social walk with some friends for the whole day..... I will FB and Tweet where I am walking to next on Saturday....

I am agile on my legs for sure, and my breathing is so amazing, and my heart rate is so even all the time. I have gone down two clothing sizes so far, and I am now losing weight at a fairly rapid rate! ....All positive ends. I am not so disappointed by not being able to use my right arm too well, and I am not saddened at all by my inability to do too many chores, or work in the studio much at all these past 10 months because I have the training. I have also been able to cut my pain medication doses in half. Plus my diabetes is quite under control too! This is exactly why this walk I am doing is FOR ME...with the benefit of raising money for a charity that has already funded research to help me stay well in my future.
It is not easy to juggle the recovery and the training and I feel very fortunate that I am well enough to do it, and I empathize with those who just cannot try because they did not luck out as well as me with their diagnosis, surgery and recovery. I will take you all in my heart with me on walk day and if you see me cheering on the news and walking and knitting my way through Toronto..Please know that on Walk day I am cheering for YOU.

A few weeks after the Walk in September I will have my 6month examination after surgery. I feel confident that I will screen clear of the cancer, as my post op pathology was clean.
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To address something that has occurred in Toronto with fraud over cancer survival:

There has been a young woman arrested for frauding folks out of their money on the internet by saying she is a cancer patient. I am sure this all is making everyone wary, so I have taken scans of mine and Alex's official participation letters so you can see we are official numbered participants of an official numbered Canadian Charity event. The two photos below are shots of our official letters.

Also I just wanted to let you know that if you support us by clicking on the icons in the margin that donation goes directly to the charity through their official site, and you get a receipt in email right way, and I believe you get your official tax receipt in the email as well. Nothing goes into mine or Alex's personal account, and your privacy is protected, and we cannot see your credit card number etc.