I have been an endurance events manager for the MMRF for the past two years. In my previous life, I was a participant on the very events that I now lead. My mother is a multiple myeloma patient, and during the worst of her treatment, I was one of her many caregivers. know firsthand how important a program like Moving Mountains for Multiple Myeloma is. It is not just the fundraising that is important, or the idea of hiking with a team in some of the worlds most beautiful places. The program itself gave me a sense of hope that I had never felt before.

Imagine yourself in a participant’s shoes. Maybe you are a caregiver like me, and you sign up for this event because you’ve always wanted to go on an epic hike and like the idea of a challenging fundraising goal. You arrive, very nervous, to your first training hike and realize that your team consists of other caregivers and patients, but shockingly you also meet representatives from pharma, researchers that work in labs on the drugs that your loved one may need one day, and doctors who could very well be treating your loved one. The team’s presence alongside you is supporting and comforting. This is what makes the event so powerful.

By hiking alongside, sharing a mountain hut, and truly getting to know the caregivers, patients, researchers, clinicians and pharma leadership the walls that were built upon diagnosis and through treatment begin to break down. I know in my personal experience, I often felt alone with my mother’s diagnosis and this program gave me a community I could count on.

I came away from my first hike in awe of the work that The MMRF is doing. I came home full of hope for the future and the progress that is being made. I came home with friends that I knew I could count on, lean on and depend on when my mother and I needed them.
The Moving Mountains for Multiple Myeloma program is so powerful because, as an orphan cancer, it is difficult to find others who understand, who you can talk to. The MMRF is that resource for me and it has empowered me to be that resource for others.