Fighting Fire with Water

Hi, I'm Emily, the Swim Mentor for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team-in-Training Program. I've been asked to share my blog with the readers of the Tarrytown-Sleepy Hollow Patch (yay). For the first installment, I'm cheating and copying an old one.  If you are interested in reading more, please check out my official blog and if you can, please donate to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society!

There is a video you should watch, because it's amazing. It's called "Fire with Fire" and it's about doctors and researchers using the HIV virus to fight Leukemia cells in the blood of a six year old girl named Emma. It's a short film, but it inspires me every day because that research was funded in part by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. 

I swim with LLS's Team-in-Training Hudson River Swim for Life team, which is training hard to swim from Nyack to Sleepy Hollow in September.  The research that saved Emma's life was supported by athletes, like myself, of all shapes, sizes and ability levels who have participated in runs, walks, bike rides, triathlons and the Hudson River Swim for Life.  The money was raised long before I joined the team; but my predecessors gave a little bit of themselves and gave that doctor the ability to turn something deadly into a tool for healing.

I re-watched this video today and I realized that the Hudson River is a tool for healing. While Carl June is fighting fire with fire, the Hudson River Swim for Life TNT team fights fire with water.  Every time my team steps into the Hudson to train for the three-mile swim in September, we join with all those people who have trained and begged their friends for money to help fight cancer. Together with amazing doctors and researchers we are closer than ever to doing just that.

I hope you'll join me, in the water, on the shore as a cheerleader, through a donation to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society at  or by sharing this with your friends.  Together, I have no doubt can cure cancer! Please, help me fight fire with water.