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Our 2024 Get Your Rear in Gear - New York Team Page
The Tita-tinis
The Tita-tinis
In June of 2021, I got a call from my mom, Tita Kefalas, that no one wants to receive – she had Stage IV Colon Cancer. I couldn't have imagined at that moment that the same October I would walked in her memory at the Colon Cancer Coalition's GYRIG NYC 5k. Since then, this community and this purpose has helped me feel like we might be able to change outcomes and save a life like my mom's.
I've been so inspired by all the people who have walked alongside me, donated, and encouraged strangers to get colonoscopies – friends, family, teachers, and my favorite doctors, too! This year, let's keep the momentum going and keep making amazing memories (and poop jokes!) in beautiful Brooklyn. Please sign up to join our team on October 15th, 2023 in Prospect Park or donate if you want to support us!
My mom always believed in me and told me I was destined for big things – the most healing part of my grief journey is that her story is my "big thing." My mission, passion, and reason.
Tita's laugh was the brightest, loudest, and most honest in the room. She loved her afternoon greek coffee and we always stopped for Auntie Anne's at the mall together. She made me feel like I had superpowers just because of how much she loved me. I may have been her reason, but now she is mine.
Over the past two years, The Tita-Tinis have raised over $10,400 for Colon Cancer Research, Education, and Awareness Locally here in New York. That cost could cover up to 8 colonoscopies or 20 Cologuard kits! Your donations have real impacts for those who wouldn't otherwise be able to afford preventive care. For context? That same amount wouldn't even cover one single dose of the chemo my mom received if she had been uninsured.
A colon cancer, and especially late-stage colon cancer diagnosis is emotionally, physically, and financially toxic. And numbers are increasing at an alarming rate. I'm scared for my friends, my peers, who are statistically more likely to die of colon cancer young than my mom would have been. Your donation could help researchers not only answer this question, but change the outcome.
If you can't donate, I hope you'll promise me this – make your doctor's appointment for the cancer screenings you've been putting off.
Because colon cancer is also PREVENTABLE, treatable, and beatable when caught early. As a result of my mom's cancer, I was screened for a variety of risk factors, and I now know I am a previvor with a CHEK2 mutation. That means I have a change in my genes that makes me more likely to get cancer over time, and perhaps at a younger age – this is likely the same gene that caused my mom's colon cancer.
My mom's cancer diagnosis may one day save my life – but maybe her story will also save yours. Go get screened!
I've been so inspired by all the people who have walked alongside me, donated, and encouraged strangers to get colonoscopies – friends, family, teachers, and my favorite doctors, too! This year, let's keep the momentum going and keep making amazing memories (and poop jokes!) in beautiful Brooklyn. Please sign up to join our team on October 15th, 2023 in Prospect Park or donate if you want to support us!
My mom always believed in me and told me I was destined for big things – the most healing part of my grief journey is that her story is my "big thing." My mission, passion, and reason.
Tita's laugh was the brightest, loudest, and most honest in the room. She loved her afternoon greek coffee and we always stopped for Auntie Anne's at the mall together. She made me feel like I had superpowers just because of how much she loved me. I may have been her reason, but now she is mine.
Over the past two years, The Tita-Tinis have raised over $10,400 for Colon Cancer Research, Education, and Awareness Locally here in New York. That cost could cover up to 8 colonoscopies or 20 Cologuard kits! Your donations have real impacts for those who wouldn't otherwise be able to afford preventive care. For context? That same amount wouldn't even cover one single dose of the chemo my mom received if she had been uninsured.
A colon cancer, and especially late-stage colon cancer diagnosis is emotionally, physically, and financially toxic. And numbers are increasing at an alarming rate. I'm scared for my friends, my peers, who are statistically more likely to die of colon cancer young than my mom would have been. Your donation could help researchers not only answer this question, but change the outcome.
If you can't donate, I hope you'll promise me this – make your doctor's appointment for the cancer screenings you've been putting off.
Because colon cancer is also PREVENTABLE, treatable, and beatable when caught early. As a result of my mom's cancer, I was screened for a variety of risk factors, and I now know I am a previvor with a CHEK2 mutation. That means I have a change in my genes that makes me more likely to get cancer over time, and perhaps at a younger age – this is likely the same gene that caused my mom's colon cancer.
My mom's cancer diagnosis may one day save my life – but maybe her story will also save yours. Go get screened!
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