One Year

I can’t believe that it has been a year. Tomorrow morning at 10:20am will mark exactly one year since Josh passed away. Some days I still have a hard time even believing it. One year ago today, I learned that my big brother wasn’t going to make it through the weekend. I think I speak for my whole family when I say that was the most painful weekend of my life, but at the same time, Josh’s pain ended…and he so deserved for that pain to end. We can take solace in the fact that he is truly cancer free.

What a year…in some ways it went quickly, in some ways it took a lifetime. I figure I can look at it one of two ways: one year further from the last time I saw Josh…or one year closer to the next time I will see him. Although I’m in no hurry for that time to come, at least I know that when I’m done here I will have the loving arms of my big brother to welcome me.

For Josh’s birthday on the 12th, we had a celebration of his life with the family to come together and remember Josh. When we told Jake about Daddy’s birthday, he said, “I guess we are going to have to throw the cake in the air!” So, that is what we did. We sent some cake to heaven tied to green balloons, so that Josh could have some, too. He never did get a chance to try any of Crystal’s oh so tasty and beautifully decorated cakes, but maybe now he did. That was a tough day, but Jake and Caily get us through each challenge with love and a smile. They miss their daddy. We talk about him a lot though, so they will always know what a loving father they have.

To celebrate Josh, tomorrow we will eat at Chilis. They are having a special day where they will donate all of their profits to fight childhood cancer through St. Jude’s children’s hospital. Go to www.chilis.com to find more details. It just seems like the most appropriate thing to do, and I know that Josh would be proud.

Happy Birthday, Josh

I'll post more another day.

Josh Allen Award

Last week my family was honored to present the first ever "Josh Allen Award." This is an award give to the Most Valuable Forward on the Varsity Rugby team at the U of A. Coach Dave Sitton re-named the award in honor and memory of Josh. Josh won this award while he was a member of the team. The winner is selected by his teammates. It is nice to know that Josh's name will continue on in the UA Rugby family.

I'm employed

I have recently begun a new position! I'm working at the Tucson Osteopathic Medical Foundation. This is a very exciting opportunity for me, as I am the Communications Associate, which means that I actually get to use my Marketing degree!!

I have already learned so much. Especially about Osteopathy, Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment (OMT), and D.O.s.

Throughout the year I will be working on the radio show Healthwise which airs at Noon on Sundays on AM790 KNST and consists of an interview of a different professional each week (usually D.O.s) to inform listeners about different health issues. Another item I will be working on is a complimentary magazine called Something More that is published for the osteopathic patient and includes articles about health, medicine, and the benefits of Osteopathic Medicine. I am also assisting with a look for the website.

So, if any of you have an questions about Osteopathic Medicine or are looking for a D.O. in Southern AZ, send me an email, or give me a call at the office, 299-4545.

Royal Family

Caily celebrated her 3rd birthday with a royal party for the Princess! She has matured so much, and she loves to talk! Jake, of course, has also grown so much and is such a handsome boy, he will be 5 in June.

Top Fundraising Team!

We did it! Team Giant raised the most money for the Climb to Conquer Cancer!!! We raised a total of $6,578.86!!! Great job, team!

The Climb has a projected net income of $123,944.55!! That is almost $9,000 more than our goal this year!

Team Giant even had a "branch off" team. A friend of ours started her own team, "Team Pink," and they had over 20 members and raised lots of money, too! Thanks Michele, for working so hard to organize your team.

If anyone is interested in participating in the planning committee for the Climb, please let me know. It is a wonderful experience, and I would recommend it to anyone.

Team Giant Climbs "A" Mountain

Thank you so much to all of you who contributed to Team Giant!!! We appreciated your presence, your donations, your thoughts, your prayers…thank you, thank you, thank you!!

We had another great year Climbing “A” Mountain. It was a busy day for me, trying to keep everything organized, but I was able to see all 73 of you who made it out to Climb with us! I wish that I could have had a chance to talk with each of you a bit more, but please know that I am so grateful that you took the time to come to the Climb. It was awesome to see such a large team there (and we had over 80 people register in total). I’d say we definitely had the biggest team, and I’m pretty sure we raised the most money! The official counts aren’t in yet, but by my calculations, we raised over $6,000 to support cancer research, education, advocacy and support. Thanks to the American Cancer Society for making that possible! That’s about double what we raised last year….good job team!

I was so happy to see all of you out there, but we all know that it wasn’t the same, because Josh wasn’t there to meet us at the top. I know he was there is spirit, though, watching down on his GIANT team. We also climbed in honor/memory of so many others (Grandma, Hal, Kevin, Dave, Candy, Craig, Rick….the list goes on…). All of you cancer survivors were in our thoughts that day as we did our best to help to find a cure for this terrible disease.

I think our team probably won with most distance traveled! We had two team members from NY, one from WA, one from IL and at least 5 from CA. Thanks for making the trip!


Oh, yea….Happy St. Patrick’s Day! And Go Cats!

Team Giant in the news!!

Team Giant and I are in the AZ Daily Star this week! Check out the article at this link, or pick up today's (Sunday) paper!

Click here to go to the article!

A couple of things to remember when reading the article: Josh was diagnosed with appendix cancer, but we now know that is was stomach cancer (starting in the stomach lining).
Also, Team Giant now has about 70 family and friends this year.

Still time to Climb!

I wanted to remind you that you still have time to sign-up for the CLIMB to Conquer Cancer!! (FYI: The Climb is a nice 3mile stroll from Pima West up "A" Mountain, anyone with difficulties can catch the shuttle to the top).

I would love to get some more people involved, so invite your friends and family to join us on the mountain!!

Click here to go to our Team Giant page, and sign-up online! If you don't want to sign-up online, send me an email or give me a call and I will arrange another way to get you ready to go!

Our team goal is to have 40 participants!!!! Do you think we can do it?? We have about 20 now, so we are half-way there!

We are going to be having some very special team members this year! They are Kevin and Roni Kersey. Kevin was diagnosed with appendix cancer in 2003 and we have all been following his progress. After a radical and intense surgery, Kevin is doing great! We are honored to have them make the trek all the way from NY to join us on "A" Mountain! You can check out Kevin's blog at kevsupdate.blogspot.com

Slideshow

*****I exceeded my bandwith, and had to remove the slideshow! If you would like to have a chance to see it, please send me an email and I will see what I can do!*****


I have posted the slideshow that I created for Josh's memorial service. I'm warning you, it's a tear-jerker, but a wonderful display of Josh's endless smiles.

This is a very large file, and if you do not have high-speed internet, you will need to download it prior to viewing. (Also, I will not be leaving this online for too long, so please feel free to download it)

To DOWNLOAD:
Right-Click on the link below and click "Save Target As"
This will allow you to save the document to your computer.
Adobe Reader is required to view the slideshow. Click here to download a free copy.

http://www.giantallen.com/joshslideshow.pdf

Please be sure to have you speakers on!

Time to CLIMB!!

I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday season. We managed to have as merry of a Christmas as was possible. Thank you all for your thoughts and support during this time.

Many of you have probably already received an email from me, but if somehow I missed you, you can get all of the info here! It's time again for the American Cancer Society's Climb to Conquer Cancer!

This year we have a wonderful new feature to try to get everyone involved, it's a Climb website! You can sign up or donate online quickly and easily.

Below is the email that I sent out:

I am writing to invite you to join Team Giant as we participate in the American Cancer Society's Climb to Conquer Cancer!! The event takes place on Saturday, March 12, 2005 at 8am. It starts at Pima Community College and goes to the top of "A" Mountain. As most of you know, Team Giant started when Josh "Giant" Allen was diagnosed with advanced cancer in Dec '03 at the age of 25. As his friends and family, we rallied to show Josh the love and support that we have for him. We climbed "A" Mountain last year with a team of about 50 people and we raised thousands of dollars to help with the battle against cancer. Josh met us at the top and walked down the three miles!! This event was a turning point in Josh's treatment. He was overcome with the outpouring of love that we all showed him.

Josh's battle ended on September 26, 2004. His memory lives on. We also battle for all who have been affected by this disease.If you would like to help us, there are a few things you can do:

You can easily sign up by going to my Climb site (the link is at the bottom of this page) and clicking on "My Team Page" and then click on "Join our Team".

You can also donate money (any amount helps) at this site over a secure server and find more details.

You can email me at marisaallen@hotmail.com with any questions, comments, suggestions.

Remember, all team members receive a "Team Giant" t-shirt! (must sign up by Feb 7th!)

We would love to see you on the mountain!!!

**All donations are tax deductible**

Follow This Link to visit my personal web page and help me in my efforts to support Tucson Climb to Conquer Cancer

or Click here to go directly to the Team Giant page.