Lauren's March Colorectal Cancer Fundraiser

Friends,

March is one of my favorite months of the year. It's the month of March Madness, we celebrate multiple family and friend birthdays, baseball/softball comes back into action, Women's History Month, the list of great things goes on and on...

Until last year I was oblivious to one other important March milestone. It is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. As most people reading this also know, at the age of 37 I was diagnosed with colon cancer in March of 2022. I had surgery in April of 2022, 4 rounds of chemotherapy over the summer, and then progressed into a regular series of blood tests and scans across the fall and winter to track my health further.

My health journey continues to evolve day by day, and week by week. Later this March, I'll be having a second surgery related to my continued fight against this disease. While this has been incredibly hard, I have been so lucky to have an amazing village around me and to tap into some incredible support organizations for critical education and community.

So, this March, in an effort to pay forward some of the support I've received, I'm raising money for two of the organizations that I could not have made it this far without: the Colorectal Cancer Alliance and Paltown/Colontown (a community to help patients and caregivers learn, connect, and more).

I know there are so many important causes out there, but if you can contribute, it would mean the world to me to deliver back to these groups in a big way this month. Danny and I will match the first $500 donated and the ending amount will be doubled because I'll donate the total through my Gartner employee charity match program. So a $1 of giving ends up as $4 of support, if you follow my math ;)

Current projections place colorectal cancer as the leading cause of cancer related deaths for people ages 20-49 by the year 2030. I refuse to accept that and appreciate any/all help in the effort to raise awareness and funds for this cause.