In Other News........What's Emmie Up To These Days?

Always on the go, Emmie has taken up Cycling in addition to her full time job, running the rescue, and volunteering at Kaiser Permanente. (Where does she find the time?)

The reason she has taken up cycling is what's important though. Emmie's 69 year old grandfather, Ed Ducey, was diagnosed with Esophageal Cancer in 2007 after suffering from Acid Reflux disease for many years. He completed his Chemo and Radiation Therapy on December 26th, 2007 and was given just over two months to build up his strength as he prepared for surgery.

On March 6th, 2008 Grandpa Ed went under anesthesia to have a large section of his esophagus removed due to the cancerous tumor. The doctors planned to rebuild his esophagus with part of his stomach. Due to a previous surgery from a collapsed lung, there were complications and Grandpa's 8 hour surgery slowly turned into a 13 hour surgery.

Within days after surgery, Grandpa Ed contracted Pneumonia and a secondary infection. He was in a medically-induced coma for 37 days.

Update: On April 12th, after Grandpa Ed contracted additional infections and failed to respond to antibiotics, his family made the difficult decision to let him go. Grandpa Ed slipped away peacefully at 5:22pm on April 12th. Services will be held at Darlene Fisher Memorial on April 16th at 2pm.

In honor of Grandpa Ed and his memory, Emmie and her family have signed up to participate in the first ever San Francisco Bay Area Livestrong Challenge which will be held July 13th, 2008. Each team member will ride 100 miles in honor of Grandpa Ed. The team, Eddie's Angels, has raised over $5,000 so far but Emmie has yet to reach her personal goal of $1,400 for cancer research.

Grandpa Ed learning how to use his new grill! (Oops, that's supposed to be bread!?)	Always laughing with a great sense of humor!

Rest in Peace Grandpa....love you always, Missa

Eulogy from Jennifer Tumminelli / Eulogy from Cristin Sohm / Eulogy from Rich Stephens

UPDATE: Emmie is training weekly for the Livestrong Challenge and on Saturday, June 1st completed her very first 100K (69 miles to be exact!) from Santa Cruz to Castroville and back!!

Here is a short video Emmie's mom put together to remember their trek:

Emmie's next training ride, June 8th:

Please help Emmie & her mom reach their personal fund-raising goal of $2500 by visiting their Livestrong fund-raising page at http://sanjose08.livestrong.org/*/cristinsohm.