Fight Back with Fitness

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Fight back against pediatric cancer
while getting fit
(and amusing your friends)!

Need some motivation to improve your fitness?

Have a family member you want to motivate?

Do any of your friends deserve to be challenged to the fitness max?

SIGN UP FOR FIGHT BACK WITH FITNESS.

YOU CHALLENGE YOURSELF TO A PERSONAL FITNESS GOAL AND RAISE FUNDS BY PROMISING TO STICK WITH IT. YOU GET FIT AND KIDS GET A BETTER CHANCE AT BEATING CANCER.
EVERYONE WINS.

STEP 1: PICK A FITNESS GOAL

It can be anything you’d like--from running 20 miles a week, to doing 1000 pushups in a day, competing in a race, climbing an Adirondack high peak, walking the mall 20 minutes a day, getting your black belt in karate, building the perfect abs, or even fitting into your pants from three years ago. Either pick something from our list of sample goals or better yet, come up with your own. You set the goal and you set the deadline.

STEP 2: SET A FUNDRAISING GOAL & RECRUIT YOUR DONORS

Your donors are a bunch of people who raise the stakes with contributions to the Jake Wetchler Foundation and whose job it is to keep you going with encouragement, guilt, laughs--whatever it takes! We'll help you with easy steps to recruit them. You will be more committed and have more fun than you ever imagined.

STEP 3: GO FOR IT!

Train (or abstain, like from dessert) and fundraise until you meet both your fitness and fundraising goals. Everybody wins!

Kids can do it, seniors can do it...families, clubs, corporations, sports teams, anyone who is interested in getting fit and helping to make a difference. So click here to register now!

Our Inspiration

One summer at Camp Ramah, Jake and Danny Capecci teamed up to help Capecci meet his goal of losing 30 lbs.

Jake loved helping people get fit. Now it's our turn to promote fitness along with the fight against pediatric cancer.

Click on the video to hear Capecci tell the story. Or read the story here.

Featured Fitness Fighter

Sally Colella trained for the Savage Man Acqua Vela, an 0.9 mile swim and 22 mile bike ride held in September at Deep Creek Maryland. She was also a relentless fundraiser. According to her supporters, “Sally, you’re a wild woman!”

Why We Fight Against Pediatric CancerNo child's life should be lost to cancer -- and yet cancer is the #1 cause of children's disease-related death. Each year in the US alone, 12,400 children and adolescents are diagnosed with cancer, the equivalent of two average-size classrooms every school day.

The Jake Wetchler Foundation is named in honor of a young man who fought two heroic battles against cancer, beating Hodgkin's lymphoma at age 18 but then losing his life to leukemia at age 20. Jake would often say to us, "Don't let the cancer win", meaning that whatever course his cancer might take, we could still choose our attitude, whether to be overwhelmed and let cancer destroy our spirits or to fight back as he did, with defiance and unbeatable good humor.

Jake had the finest medical care available and an unparalleled fighting spirit but the existing treatments were no match for his disease. While great progress has been made in the treatment of some pediatric cancers, the prognosis for others still remains poor and for all cancers, standard chemotherapy remains highly toxic. Some chemotherapies, like one used to treat Jake's Hodgkin's lymphoma, are so toxic they can cause secondary cancers -- like Jake's leukemia.

We can do better. We can -- and must -- bring the power of today's unprecedented technological and scientific innovations to pediatric cancer research, to find more effective and less toxic treatments. That is why we fight, in Jake's spirit and for the thousands of children and young adults who continue to battle cancer.

Read more about Jake's Story or find out about the Jake Wetchler Foundation for Innovative Pediatric Cancer Research at www.DontLetTheCancerWin.org.

Help spread the word...like us on Facebook!

Top 5 Fundraisers
Sally Colella	$ 3,250.00
Pamela Casey	$ 1,820.00
Rachel Silva	$ 1,345.00
Jonathan Mest	$ 1,176.20
Denise Martini	$ 940.00

The Medimmune Fight Back with Fitness campaign is on! Watch as Medimmune employees step up to help kids with cancer by logging miles, heading to the gym, building muscle, and eating healthy while blasting the top off the fundraising thermometer!

Medimmune employees:

Click on "Register" above to sign up, then "Participate Individually." You will then be prompted to select Medimmune from a drop-down menu.
Click here to go to the Medimmune page and check it out!

Sign up today and we will
automatically enter your name in a
lottery to win an REI day pack.
So click here to register now!

Special thanks to our sponsor:

The MVSA Fight Back with Fitness Invitational was a huge success thanks to the dedication of the players, coaches and parent reps who all worked together to get fit, have fun -- and totally ace the tournament fundraising goals! You can check out photos of the tournament in our photo gallery and see how each of the teams did by clicking here.

Thank you also to our tournament sponsors:

Fitness Can Be Fun!

See Jake doing a shoulder roll below.

Philadelphia University's Law & Society Club gained muscle, lost pounds, and made a difference for pediatric cancer research in their Fight Back With Fitness campaign. Thank you to all the participants!

College groups interested in Fight Back With Fitness partnerships can contact JeanSinger@DontLetTheCancerWin.org.

Thank you to Forman Mills for donating our cool Fight Back with Fitness t-shirts!

See the t-shirts and buy one at our online store.