In the beginning of August, I spent a week in Toronto, CA with my very good friend and blogger, Dave. I intended, upon leaving Canada, to go down to New Jersey to spend a few days with my other good friend Sergio, before he embarked on the journey of a life time, leaving for the Peace Corps on August 17th. On Friday, the day before leaving Toronto, Sergio informed that he in fact would not be going to the Peace Corps because he was “sick.” I immediately thought he had a cold, and had to wait a week or so before flying, at which time he informed that his doctor found a lump in my lymphnodes, and believed that he was in the early stages of Lymphoma.
With this news, I left Toronto the next day, in order to spend the next month between New Jersey and Upstate New York, trying my best to be there for Sergio physically, as well as emotionally. I can not even begin to describe the emotional toll this took on me, and can’t imagine how Sergio felt about this news.
Through out the long journey of chemotherapy, and radiation, Sergio kept a very upbeat manner, generally making sure that all of his friends and family were emotionally okay with what was happening. When most people would go into an tailspin, upset at their fate, Sergio’s amazing optimism shone through, never hearing him utter the words “why did this happen to me?” A question that I dreaded, knowing I wouldn’t know the answer to it.
In December, after Sergio began his first rounds of radiation, we were elated to find that the cancer was gone, and that his doctors were making sure that it would not be back.
Now, Sergio is running a marathon for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society, hoping to find a cure, so more people do not have to be affected by it in the way that we were.
Please donate if you can, no amount is too small or big. If you can’t, it’s okay too, thank you for showing your support 
http://pages.teamintraining.org/snj/nj09/smoruamartinez
