This lady is kicking cancer's butt....

"Today we fight, tomorrow we fight. The day after, we fight. And if this disease plans on whipping us, it better bring a lunch, 'cause it's gonna have a long day doing it." 

Jim Beaver, Life's That Way: A Memoir

My sister has cancer.....

But in our family everyone is expected to fight..... Even after we have gone down a few times, we get back up and keep fighting....  In our clan wars Gender has never been a barrier to fighting whether that fight was a childish playground scuffle or the horrific conflict that raged around us as we grew into adulthood. In my family everyone was taught to fight because we are the heirs of the Scots-Irish Clans and unceasing warfare is an integral part of that heritage. It was our mother who taught us how to fight when we were mere babes in swaddling clothes... she taught us to hit hard, without hesitation, and then she taught us how to dig the heel of our boot into an opponent's nose to ensure they stayed down... as I said: "Gender has never been a barrier to being a warrior in our clan."

Why the uncomfortably blunt description of our clan's genderless egalitarian approach to warfare?

Our mother died in January after cancer ended her life in four short weeks. She fought every second of her life and she would turn in her grave if she thought her kids weren't passionately kicking lumps out of such an insidious enemy as Cancer. Especially as the clan warrior "femme fatale" that is my "big sister Sarah" also has cancer, and while she is now a refined lady of genteel middle age, she is still a warrior and she hasn't forgotten our mother's lessons, and even though she is in a very different kind of fight she still remembers she is meant to dig her heel in hard! This week she will enter the next round of kicking Colon Cancer's butt! Chemotherapy is just a different kind of heel she'll be using to dig in hard.

I'd give a lot to be able to charge into the fray and pummel this outrageous foe, but cancer only permits one-on-one combat, so I'll stand on the edge of this raging war and cheer my sister on as she digs her warrior's heel into Cancer's nose and kicks it's butt.

In an attempt to help me handle the agony of having to passively be a mere bystander in this fight against Colon Cancer, my beloved wife has encouraged me to build a team to run in the "Undy 5000" on March 29th here in St. Louis. http://support.ccalliance.org/site/TR/5K/UndyNEW?team_id=35760&pg=team&fr_id=1880

If you live in St. Louis, are free, and are my friend, then join our Irish-American team as we walk 5K in support of my sister Sarah. If you live somewhere else in America and are my friend, then donate to our team in support of kicking cancer's butt in every life it has the audacity to appear in.

If you are one of my friends and like a good fight, come join us on March 29th as this fighting Irishman joins with his new "American" clan to help kick Cancer's butt.....

Clan Millar is kicking cancer's butt at the end of the month.... come join us!