Team In Training

Nearly two-dozen Alaskans are spending hours in the dark and in the cold this winter for a lifesaving cause. It's all for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's (LLS) sports training program: Team In Training.

The program requires that participants work to raise money for the LLS, which they can exchange for professional training for endurance sports like marathons and Nordic ski races.

Those interested should know that anyone can sign up for program.

Jamie Robinson, a Team In Training member,

explains, "Our mission for LLS, leukemia and Lymphoma Society, is to cure blood cancers, including Hodgkin's, Leukemia, Lymphoma, and Myeloma; and also to help the patients and their families endure through that trying time."

Lisa Ferber was one of those patients diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma, "I'm here because about four years ago, I had finished a ski trip where I wore a heavy backpack for quite awhile and I had a little bump just above my collar bone."

"It turned out to be Hodgkin's Lymphoma."

"I had just turned thirty, so it was not exactly how I thought thirty would be turning out."

After four months of chemotherapy and four weeks of radiation, Lisa went into remission. Now she's able to ski, and she's even an honored

teammate.

Ferber, along with twenty-two other Alaskans, spend each Tuesday and Sunday night in the dark and in the cold training for the Tour of Anchorage.

"This year we've got from, college age student, to fifty-plus...all levels of ski ability from never been on skies on their life to skied all through high school," said Head Coach Michele Gunke.

"I'm an honored teammate, so I'm maybe supposed to provide some inspiration, but I'm completely inspired by people who haven't skied before

or having cold hands, and one woman lost her son to Leukemia ten years ago and she's just so passionate. So I feel I'm being inspired by them," said Ferber.

Robinson touched on the personal gain that members experience, "They learn how to run, how to ski...there's this wonderful rewarding aspect...hard to put words to it actually."

Each teammate is responsible for raising 16-hundred dollars, 75-percent of that money goes directly to research.

The actual race is march 8th and participants will ski twenty-five, forty or fifty kilometers for the cure.

To contact the Newsroom, call 907-274-1111.