Thank you for visiting my personal page!

Are you feeling hopeful? We Are!

We are so excited to be back in person with everyone this year. We missed last year, but it was a tremendous success thanks to all of you and especially to the McNally gang who ran Team Oligo.

While some of us are emerging from almost three years of isolation, others are terrified to be in public. Everyone is experiencing COVID differently. The one thing that I know is true for all of us is that the realities of life continue, with celebrations and sorrows, either gathered or alone.

Which is why it feels all the more important to focus on our shared commitment to life and community. We are one in our shared purpose. It feels essential to care for each other.

This year will be in person.

Thank you for all of you who have walked with me in the last decade. If you are new to visiting here, I have an Oligodendroglioma (Oligo, for short) discovered on November 10, 2009. I had two craniotomies (12/09 and 2/12) and radiation and chemo. Because an Oligo never completely goes away, I go every six months to Dana-Farber for an MRI and blood work to see if the tumor is stable or grown. [If you want to read more about my journey, please see m CaringBridge page.]

The upshot? I'm extremely grateful for my current health, my care team, my husband and family, and the overwhelming love and support from you that I have received. I'm a very blessed man.

The Walk is all about remembering. Which means it is both celebration and mourning. This year we continue our prayers and focus on our dear co-captain, Steve McNally, who had surgery because his long-time Oligo grew into a GBM. This is the sorrow of our disease; progression is unpredictable. We are surrounding Steve, Kathy, Jake, and Kylie with all our love. We walk to show that love and hope for them.

We continue to walk for our friend Tanya Seidel, who died five years ago. She was not just a co-captain for Team Oligo, she and her family became partners in my own life with a brain tumor. The Walk honors her and all like her who have fought so hard.

Team Oligo has set a high goal because Oligo research is essential for us; indeed, the new discoveries in the last few years have dramatically changed the landscape for us. The truth about Oligos is that they can reappear at any time—as evidenced by both Steve and Tanya, and are never completely "gone."

Won't you come to "walk" with us this year? It is so easy to join the Team from wherever you live! Come, from all over the country, please! Your presence is a gift!

If you can join us, we'd be thrilled; if not, we appreciate your support. While it is not about the money, the hard truth is that the money is what makes the research possible.

Thank you - thank you, thank you!

peace and gratitude,

Brett+