 |
| May 05, 2024 |
Welcome! Click here to Login
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Click to visit the
Official Town Site
|
|
|
|
|
|
General News: Students Organize Run Walk for Ryan Wenke
|
| Ryan Wenke is looking forward to the run/walk on Sunday. |
|
| Even after her diagnosis, Ryan was active in school activities. In September, Ryan (with the microphone) sang with the Love Notes at the Cornwall Fall Festival. |
October 11, 2010
Ryan Wenke started her senior year at Cornwall High School with a heavy heart this fall, after learning just days earlier that her battle with cancer was beginning again. Senior year is the time to be applying to college and enjoying the company of your friends for one last year, not sitting in a hospital bed for weeks on end, like she had done 18 months earlier when the bone cancer first struck.
At school, word spread that the outgoing teen was facing another bout with the disease that had been found in a tumor in her lungs this time and friends and acquaintances rallied to her side. One of them, Alayna Smith, hatched a plan to organize a 5K/1 mile run/walk that will be held at this Sunday, October 17 to raise money to help her get through this round of chemotherapy treatments.
Friends Organized the Race to Help the Family
Alayna Smith, a senior at CCHS, says she came up with the idea when talking with a couple of friends about fundraising ideas. Alayna works with Ryan’s mother at Torches restaurant and she saw first hand how this sudden return of cancer impacted the entire family. Alayna approached Ryan’s boyfriend, Bobby Flitch, and the two began to work on a plan. They set the date for this Sunday, just two days after Ryan will return home from Mount Sinai hospital, where she is undergoing her second five-day round of chemotherapy. Ryan will be at the run/walk and she knows that it will be a good day.
Ryan says that this second bout with cancer is even more difficult than the first. Back in 2007 at the end of her freshman year she was diagnosed with bone cancer in her leg. She spent nine months in and out of the hospital where she received chemotherapy and received a revolutionary treatment that saved her leg from amputation.
Music, Drama Play a Big Role in Wenke's Life
When she returned to class in the middle of her sophomore year, Ryan put away the wig she used to hide her hair loss and threw herself into her passions. She appeared in drama club productions and joined the Love Notes, an all-female acapella group at the high school. She was unable to play tennis competitively but enjoyed a casual game with her boyfriend, who she says, has been there for her throughout.
She went to France for two weeks last spring as part of an exchange program. Her French exchange student is coming to stay with her on Saturday, the day after she gets out of the hospital.
Dealing with Cancer is Harder This Time
“Getting sick this time has been harder,” Ryan said on Friday, two days before going back to Mount Sinai. She’s got her wig back on and says she lost her hair two days earlier. “I am really angry and really sad, “ she said. “I thought I was done and then it all happened so fast when I need to be focusing on college.”
Ryan still plans to appear in the fall drama production at the high school and has planned her chemo treatments so that she can be home at key moments. She will miss Thanksgiving, she said, but should be home for Christmas.
The 5K/1 mile run/walk on Sunday will raise money for Ryan and her family to be able to stay in New York during her five days of chemotherapy after two weeks. It will also underwrite part of the special meals that her family brings her in the hospital because she says she can’t stand the hospital food.
Alayna says that she and the other walk organizers are still looking for donations, like water for the runners, if businesses or individuals would like to support their efforts. The public is invited to attend the 5K run/walk that gets underway at the high school at 2pm. The cost is only $5. Donations can also be mailed to Alayna Smith at 72 Otterkill Road, New Windsor, NY 12553. You may call Alayna at 845-772-2888 for more information.
Comments:
|
Great article, but where does the walk start? Are walk ups welcome, etc.
posted by Christopher Dauerer on 10/11/10 at 3:46 PM
|
Add a Comment:
Please signup or login to add a comment.
|
 |
|
|
|
