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You might not think the person championing prostate cancer would be a 14-year-old girl,
but you'd be wrong. Winter Vineki has raised over $400,000 for prostate cancer and she
is telling her and her father's story every chance she gets.
My name is Winter Vineki and I am currently 14 years old. When I was 9 years old, my dad
passed away from a very rare and aggressive form of prostate cancer. In his honor, I formed
TeamWinter and have now helped raise over $400,000 for prostate cancer awareness. After
my dad passed away from prostate cancer, I was looking for something really inspiring
for others and something just bigger and better to do. I decided that I was going to be running
a marathon on all seven continents. I originally got this idea after I was looking through
a book of world records. I came across the record youngest person to run a marathon in
all seven continents. That's when I immediately pointed in the book and told my mom, I want
this record for my dad and all of the other families and men affected by prostate cancer,
I am now well under way with my world marathon tour and have done four marathons and I have
three to go. All of these different marathons are such an adventure, just getting there
and just coming back. The marathons itself are extraordinary and I have had so many different
experiences of each ones. It is so hard to even pick a favorite because they are all
so different. In October, I am going to be going to New Zealand and I will set the world
record for the youngest person to run a marathon in all seven continents in Athens, Greece.
In November, I will be just under 15 years old. I will be 14 in about 10 months.
At Winter approaches her goal to be the youngest person to run a marathon on all seven continents,
she keeps her true motivation in mind.
So I am doing all this in honor of my dad and just trying to get a blue ribbon out there
to match every pink ribbon and spread awareness about prostate cancer, so that we can find
a cure for prostate cancer some day.
Winter is not raising money for TeamWinter by herself. While she runs, volunteers work
to increase the amount of donations for prostate cancer.
TeamWinter has many different ways of fundraising money. One of the first ways is that people
put on various different charity events with proceeds going to TeamWinter whether they
are putting on 5k race or a golf outing, there is many different things that people have
done to help raise money for TeamWinter. TeamWinter athletes also set up fund raising pages and
raise money as a part of the great cause, whether they are also doing different charity
events or just putting on an event or getting donations from family members. Every penny
counts and all of the proceeds raised from the athletes goes directly to prostate cancer
awareness. Those are the two main ways that athletes as a part of TeamWinter raise money
whether it is just raising a few dollars or a few hundreds dollars, every penny counts
and I have helped raise now over $400,000 with the help of all the TeamWinter athletes
and people across the world.
Winter may be the namesake of TeamWinter but she is surrounded by family and friends who
work to raise awareness for prostate cancer in honor of her father's memory.
I am the Winter in TeamWinter and my family and friends and all the supporters are the
team. I definitely cannot do this without my family. It is a huge, I guess you could
say family event for having TeamWinter and keeping up on the various different work that
needs to be done for a TeamWinter. We definitely as a family have to make a lot of sacrifices,
but this is how we are keeping our that spirit alive, so we never want to give up TeamWinter
and never want to stop with it.
As Winter continues her journey, she works hard to remember the man that her father was.
Being only 9 years old when my dad passed away, it is hard to remember a lot about my
dad. I think I definitely have remembered a lot of really great memories though. I remember
he did a few 5k and 10k running races with me. He wasn't a huge athlete growing up. He
was a big musician and his whole family was big in a music growing up. So he didn't do
a lot of athletics. I remember though when he did do those different running races with
me, he will be crossing that finish line with me. Even though he is not here now, I know
he is still waiting at that finish line for me.
Some prostate cancers are high risk, aggressive, and more likely to spread. Others are low
risk, least likely to have bad outcomes. The biopsy says cancer, but correct diagnostic
tools provide limited information about how aggressive a man's individual disease is,
so most men decide to treat prostate cancer immediately. Once treated, many men experience
serious long term side effects, like incontinence and *** impotence. Immediate treatment
is not always needed, but right now a man cannot be sure if his cancer is the kind that
is likely to require treatment or if he is okay to wait for now. What if there was a
test that could determine how aggressive prostate cancer is? Genomic Health is developing a
new test to do just that. By reviewing the underlying biology of the tumor and using
genes for multiple biologic pathways, the test can predict the aggressiveness of prostate
cancer when diagnosed, allowing a man to make a more informed treatment decision with confidence,
taking care of himself with more information, and greater peace of mind.