I have a buttload of excuses perfectly valid reasons why I hadn't signed up for the Run for the Cure (or as I like to think of it The Jog for the Jugs) in Montreal on October 3.

Up until my skin cancer diagnosis, most of them fell under the heading of procrastination. Then after the diagnosis I told myself I couldn't pin myself down because there was the question of doctor's appointments and surgery schedules.

A few weeks ago I torqued my knee helping the spousal unit build a railroad tie support wall on either side of our basement door and I can't even walk significant distances right now�I'm doing all my cardio on the rowing machine because it puts zero strain on what the doctor says are stretched ligaments.

We have guests coming from Australia in a few days and the place looks as if Hurricane Frances passed through. And with my recent computer woes, my home business is backed up and I have clients screaming at me.

But even you know what? That doesn't matter, not any of it. See, I have access to a very sophisticated, very successful treatment for my particular kind of skin cancer that does the absolute minimum damage possible to my body because someone somewhere did a lot of research and developed Mohs micrographic surgery.

If the so far benign lump in my breast should switch over to cancer, I want the same sort of treatment option.

Yep, my commitment to the Jog for the Jugs is completely selfish. I know the statistics--that one in nine women will develop breast cancer and one in 27 of them will die. Those are sucktacular numbers. I have had more than one sleepless night as I awaited mammogram results and considered those odds.

I've thought about radiation, about chemotherapy, about losing all my hair, about being terribly terribly sick. I've thought about what it might mean if I have to have a breast cut off. I've wondered if the spousal unit would still love me it I became a bald, puking, chestless woman in a society that glorifies the breast.

I so do not want to be one of those statistics. And if my luck runs out and my lump does switch over to cancer, I want for there to be a silver bullet, a treatment that works and causes the fewest side effects possible.

The Jog for the Jugs helps raise the money to help in breast cancer research, diagnosis, education and treatment. Everything involved in this run is underwritten by the CIBC, a large Canadian bank, so that whatever money is raised through the run goes directly to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.

The Foundation itself spends 90 per cent of everything it raises on breast cancer and only ten per cent on overhead and general fundraising. You want a tax receipt for your donation, you will get one. This is not one of those scam "charities".

So this would be me rattling my tin cup at you yet again. Here's the donation page.

I know many of my three loyal readers are not exactly rolling the moolah. This run gives you the option of giving a small donation if that's all you can swing. If you're American and you contribute $5 to this charity it will cost you a grand total of $3.89 at today's currency exchange rate because Canadian dollars are every bit as attractive and almost as valuable as Monopoly money.

Now you might think that the joy of donating to such a great charity would be enough, but here at MarnCo--the ruthless multinational behind The Big Adventure--we're all about maximum reader benefits. Oh yes, not only do you get the satisfaction of doing good, you get pixels!

You can put this stunningly low tech, somewhat tacky graphic on your site:

AND if you e-mail me after you give with either particulars of your site or a name you want to use, you will be immortalized in the Bazonga Boosters Hall o' Fame, 2004 Edition (which is an extension of the 2003 edition because we're not code monkeys here at MarnCo�there's only so much one ruthless multinational can do, after all).

If you donate to the cause either in honour or in memory of someone, let me know. Marn at Diaryland dot com gets to me. I will make sure their name is inscribed in the Hall o' Fame along side your name and also on the shirt I'll wear in the Jog for the Jugs. If you donate a booby prize in lieu of a cash donation because cash is short, this year you, too, will be immortalized in the Hall o' Fame.

The satisfaction of helping a worthy charity. A stunningly low tech, somewhat tacky graphic. Having your name inscribed in glowing pixels in a web site that prominently features the word "Bazonga".

Seriously, How Can You Resist?

--Marn

Mileage on the Marnometer: 663.36 miles. .
Oh man. This is going to be hard
Goal for 2004: 1,000 miles - 1609 kilometers