Well, sports fans it has been a tumultuous 3 weeks. I apologize for not updating you sooner.

In mid-January Nick and I were down in Miami for a tune-up regatta called the Alex Cavalgia Bluewater Classic Regatta. It was a three day event. On the last day, a storm passed through and we had no racing. Nick and I won the Regatta winning 4 races out of 5.

Never did we know the storm that would develop in our own lives the very next day after receiving our award. Sipping coffee at 8 AM that Monday morning, and getting ready for the first day of a weeks training with our US SKUD training partners Scott and Julia from Team Metedeconck, I checked in back at the homestead.

The day before, ‘Grampy’ and I agreed that our youngest son, Trent, had some kind of stomach bug. He wasn’t eating nor drinking and we feared possible dehydration. Mutually, we thought it best to have him checked out at the ER. They admitted him for dehydration and a stomach flu, keeping him overnight, to be discharged the next day. Ten minutes later, I called back to speak with ‘Nana’, (who had spent the night with him at Salem Children’s Hosp) to ask a simple question - but there was trouble. In the 10 minutes elapsed, Trent had stopped breathing, they had kicked my folks out of the room and called for a medivac transport to Boston. Another ten minutes after that, I spoke with the attending doctor, who informed me she found him with a blown right eye pupil indicating a brain problem. She agreed we should fly back immediately, he was gravely ill.

Our ever-ready USA Coach Betsy Alison jumped into her car for a quick transport to the Ft Lauderdale airport, we grabbed an 11:15 flight and were back in Boston that Monday at Trent’s bedside at 3pm. The news has been tough to take. He had a malignant brain tumor in the rear of brain. Surgery on Tuesday removed it - completely. There may be more cancer on his pituitary and his kind of cancer responds well to chemotherapy and later radiation. The next few months will be arduous -for Nick, Dana, Dan & I and mostly for Trent. The side effects for his age may be rough, and there may be long-lasting side effects. Dana will be bounced around a bit while he is in treatment.

After the successful surgery, and getting the potential chemo schedule, we realized then would be the best time to return to Miami and finish my US Paralympic team racing obligations for the OCR. We will need to adjust our schedule in the future around his treatments as Trent may need me MORE later. My husband and I feel this may be the toughest few months of our lives. We have faced this type of stuff for my paralysis and we will fight this too.

We have three battles on now -Nick’s ALS -Trent’s cancer -to win gold in Beijing (which seems the easiest one of all). Nick’s strength and determination to win the gold in the face of his ALS is a profound example. Nick shows us all that life is for living. I currently intend to continue on the road to Beijing for the Games in September and adjust training as necessary. Dan & I feel that it’s important to show Trent and Dana that life goes on in the face of adversity. We feel that giving up the Paralympics would be conceding a battle to cancer that it has no business in winning. We intend to kick cancer’s butt, and one important way to do that is to not give it even the most minor victories. We feel this is the right decision for our family, at least for now. My regatta & training schedule will be subject to the whims of Trent’s chemotherapy schedule and it will be difficult to plan as far in advance as we’d like -but we will go on.

By the way, Nick and I won the Rolex Miami Olympic Classes regatta, winning 7 of 10 races scored, with a couple of 2nds and one 3rd. In addition to both of us dealing with Trent’s news, Nick lost his father-in-law the same week. The toughest international competition we’ll face in China was there in Miami, so it was a nice confidence builder considering this mind-blowing news.