Doing an internship at Kirby, while a great learning experience, has made us (Diana and Jen) question whether we, too, might be crazy. You may be wondering why we are doubting our sanity…well, besides working 80 hours a week writing reports, seeing patients, doing psychological testing, and working at Bellevue 3 days a week, we have decided to run our first MARATHON. To prove to ourselves that we have not decompensated to the point of having a dangerous mental disorder, we each had Jessica do a psychological evaluation, and she concluded that we are safe enough to be released from Kirby into the community at the end of our internship…thankfully, because we need to train for this marathon.

While Kirby has provided us with great psychology training, we are training (and completing) this marathon to help others. As members of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training, we are running on behalf of a patient, Cynthia Gormezano. Cynthia was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 2000 at the age of 28. Additionally, we are running in the memory of Jen’s grandfather, Julius Spring, who had Leukemia.

Running 26.2 miles still seems a little insane, right? Well, Leukemia kills more people between the ages of 2 and 14 than any other disease, and the number of afflicted adults is 10 times that of children. While the cause of Leukemia remains unknown, the recently developed treatment methods and advances in research bring us closer everyday to finding a cure. These facts convinced us to run the NY Marathon and try to raise at least $5000.00 between the two of us. The funds will be used for research, patient aid, and education.

Don’t forget, all donations are 100% tax-deductible. Your sponsorship can be as little or as much as you would like. All donations will be greatly appreciated. If the donations from Kirby reach a total of $1000, we will each wear (with great pride) the new Kirby tee-shirts we recently purchased when we are running the marathon.

If you have any questions, please contact us at ext. 5896 or by groupwise. Please make checks payable to “The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society”

We really appreciate your willingness to help, and thank you for your generosity.

Thank you,

Jennifer Spring &
Diana Falkenbach