Armstrong to race WNY native at UB

AMHERST, N.Y. (WIVB) - Everything worthwhile begins with a dream, and then there is the dreamer. In this case, the dreamer is Orchard Park native Mary Eggers.

We spoke to her Friday, and she explained, "I have a bad habit to challenge people to silly things. And I said, 'Wouldn't it be funny if when Lance Armstrong came to UB to speak, he agreed to race me in the pool?'"

The longtime triathlete and registered nurse has a much deeper purpose than just to challenge a seven-time Tour DeFrance winner.

"I spent 10 years working at Strong [Memorial Hospital in Rochester] and a lot of those years, I took care of kids who have cancer. So when I saw what we could do, or what was happening here at "Teens Living with Cancer," like this is something that needs to continue," Eggers said.

The very successful community-based chapter of Teens Living with Cancer in Rochester is now ready to take flight, starting a new chapter at Roswell Park, and it's all about a living legacy.

Lauren Spiker is the Executive Director of Melissa's Living Legacy Teens Living with Cancer Foundation. She said, "When Melissa was sick, throughout her two years of her treatment, we saw up front and personal how really hard it is to be a teenager with cancer."

Spiker lost her daughter to cancer at age 19. Since then, she has dedicated her life to filling the peer support gap that so many teens fighting cancer have to endure.

As she recounts, "It was three months before Melissa died that I told her how proud I was of how she had lived her life. And Melissa said, 'A lot of people say those things to me. Promise me if you have learned anything from me through all of this that you'll do something with it, something to make a difference.'"

The Saturday fundraiser will be attended by teen cancer patients from both Buffalo and Rochester and organizers are hoping to generate as much money as possible for this great cause.

As Spiker indicated, "This has always been my vision, moving into Buffalo and establishing the second chapter of Teens Living with Cancer has always been my vision and with UB's support helping us host the "Duel in Pool," with Roswell's support, Buffalo's our first step, but not the last one."

>> To learn more on how you can donate and about attending "Duel in the Pool," follow this link

A side note to this story. Though Mike Cejka and his family don't have a daughter with cancer, they have experienced first hand the trials that a teen endures while dealing with chronic illness. Below is something written by Cejka for this story:

"Our own daughter has had a chronic illness called "Dysautonomia" during the past several years. As Lauren Spiker explained to me Friday, there is a great deal of isolation for teens dealing with chronic illness, particularly cancer, as the world goes on around them. She also indicated that even the treatment of cancer has been more focused on the very young and the adult sectors with a noticeable gap during the teen years. Let's hope that this is beginning of an outreach that will provide much better support to an often forgotten age group."