Be a Warrior Queen: CHOC Walk 2013

I know we all aren't excited it's Monday. But let's make it a great week!! And here's one way of starting off your week great...

Let me tell you about this wonderful walk that I'm doing next month!! I do it every year that I can. Last year I had to miss it because my job was solely on the weekends, so I couldn't ask for days off.

In Orange County there is an amazing children's hospital. I really cannot say how happy I am that we have such an amazing children's hospital in our vicinity. It is called the Children's Hosiptal of Orange County or CHOC.

Every year they do a fundraiser walk at Disneyland in the super duper early hours of a Sunday. You walk throughout both Disneyland and California Adventure and along the way there are all of these facts about CHOC. And there are all of these survivor stories and I spend the whole time crying and smiling because of all of the amazingness.

I know you're probably wondering why it is a hospital that is so close to my heart. I mentioned recently that my cousin had cancer as a child and passed away. He did die cancer-free though! That boy was my shining light and the sunshine in my life. After finding out he had cancer at the age of 2, he was announced cancer free (on television!). He had a couple of bone marrow transplants and other surgeries. He had Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. He even survived a couple of bouts of graft vs. host. He was a fighter.

All of his cancer treatment was done at CHOC. His at-home nurses came from CHOC. His family stayed at the Ronald McDonald house several times to be closer to him while he was in the hospital. I don't think I could ever express my gratitude to the nurses and doctors at CHOC. They were amazing.

Every year that we walk, we do it in honor of Gregory and all of the other children that CHOC has helped. We've tried to start a Team Sunshine, but never have the time to dedicate to running a team. This year I decided to join the Anaheim Ducks Diehards team.

The Ducks were Gregory's favorite hockey team. Occasionally, the Ducks players will visit the patients at CHOC and they happened to fall in love with Gregory - who happened to be wearing his mom's King's jersey that day. After that, Gregory got to go to a couple of games and sit on the ice. Players came to his house and he was on the news a couple of more times.

I love watching these videos and hearing him laugh. :)