For almost 40 years my grandfather has sold Christmas trees on his front lawn to raise money for the Jimmy Fund and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. He started this tradition as a thank you for the treatment his youngest son, my uncle, received for Leukemia.  He wanted to give back and, not being a wealthy man, this was the way he found to do it.

My grandfather is in his late 80's now and it's likely that this holiday tradition will end this year since it's getting harder for him to do and there aren't as many people around to help him do it. It breaks my heart to see this happen, selling Christmas trees and raising money for the Jimmy fund has been an important part of my holiday season for my whole life. If I had the means to continue it, I would in a heartbeat, but I don't have a place to sell them, the money to get started, or the time to manage it.

What I do have is an upcoming Ironman triathlon and 10 months to fundraise, so that's what I'm doing. In the upper right hand corner of my blog you'll notice that I've added a logo/link to Running the Race Against Cancer. I've set a tentative goal to raise $5000 for the Jimmy Fund, but I hope to go beyond that.

I'm doing this for my grandfather, who can't do it anymore. For my uncle, who benefitted so much. For my great aunt, who lost her battle against cancer last year. For my aunt Pat, who won recently won her battle. And finally, for my father's mother, Phyllis Schareg Dillon, who lost her battle with breast cancer when I was so young that the only memory I have of her was sitting at her bedside not long before she died.

About the Jimmy Fund / Dana Farber Cancer Institute

The Dana-Farber Cancer institute is on track to conquering major forms of cancer within this decade. Home to many of the world's groundbreaking discoveries in cancer research and treatment, Dana-Farber is uniquely primes to transform this vision to a reality.

The Jimmy Fund Clinic at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is a place where children and their families find hope.

For people in New England and around the globe, the Jimmy Fund Clinic is one of the world's premiere centers for pediatric cancer research and treatment. Starting in the 1940's, when the Institute founder Sidney Farber, M.D. used drug therapy to achieve the first-ever remissions of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia, Dana-Farber researchers have made strides against virtually every type of cancer that strikes children, from solid tumors that involve individual organs to those that effect blood or lymph.