Here is the Outside The Lines Segment that aired live today, in case you missed it.

and... here is a longer segment they were kind enough to film after the show which will go out across their other platforms and features the Bake It Happen campaign! Thank you so much to Andy Tennant, Jeremy Schaap, and the entire ESPN crew who made me feel so welcome and gave us this valuable airtime to get the message out about funding for metastatic breast cancer!

This Wednesday, I will have the incredible opportunity to be featured on the show Outside The Lines (OTL) on ESPN around 120pm. No one is more shocked than I am to be featured on a sports channel, but my old D1 soccer connections (barely) qualify me as an "athlete" and we're running with that (literally).  This show features inspirational sports related stories and my old soccer buddy Andy Tennant, captain of the Men' team when I co-captained the Women's, is kindly responsible for giving me this amazing opportunity to shed more (very much needed) light on MBC during breast cancer awareness month. 

So I thought I would share a story about a recent inspiration of mine. This weekend, I was inspired by someone I have never met and who is no longer with us. My friend Shari's mom Judy is the inspiration behind the amazing Bake It Happen campaign and this is our 3rd year as the proud beneficiaries. Between sports games and her homecoming dance, my daughter Bella and I baked up one of the recipes (seen above - chocolate chip banana bread). These recipes aren't too complicated, but they're not basic either - so they are a bit of a challenge for someone like me for whom baking does not come naturally and who is pretty tired these days. However, as we made our gluten free substitutions (Bella has celiac) and coated the chocolate chips so they wouldn't sink, following every instruction to the letter - I had the chance to just think about Judy and what this all meant. Shari's words kept running through my head "My mom loved to bake and even toward the end with MBC she always had baked goods and food on the table to share with loved ones." Well, coming off a tough week of chemo - where I'm sometimes too tired to do anything - baking so much as frosted ice for others feels downright heroic never mind these incredible recipes Judy was whipping up. I just kept thinking of her and how amazing it is that she shared her love in this way, with those in her life, even near the end. My oven mitts go off to you Judy. The lessons I learned from her are the following: 1. We can always do more than we think. 2. There are many ways we can share our love with others. 3. We all have unique gifts and talents to give to the world, no matter what our situation. I believe we are each born into this life to make the world a better place in some way with our presence. Our challenge is to discover our own special way of doing that and Judy certainly found hers. But the really cool thing is, Judy had no idea how much she was inspiring her daughters just by naturally sharing her gifts and doing what she loved. She was just baking and sharing in her kitchen. She had no idea that this random woman (me - and so many others) would spend the weekend thinking about and being inspired by her. She was just doing what she loved. Yet, here we are - carrying on her legacy. It's kind of mind blowing when you think about it. You never ever know who you are inspiring just by being you and sharing your unique gifts with the world.

Thank you Judy for making the world a sweeter place. Thank you to her daughters Shari and Stacy for sharing her story and recipes with all of us. I plan to share Judy's story on ESPN tomorrow.  I bet if someone told her that she would be talked about on ESPN for her baking, in her kitchen, all those years ago - she would have thought they were crazy. Isn't life just awesome that way? Always full of sweet surprises :). Happy Baking and tune in if you can!   

Ok friends, it is that time of year again to do the easiest, tastiest thing possible to help fund a cure for metastatic breast cancer (MBC)! Two amazing sisters, Shari and Stacy, started Bake It Happen with their mom's recipes to keep her memory and passion for cooking alive and to try tp help fund research for the disease that took her life. After Shari and I met and became fast friends through a breast cancer program three years ago, they have decided to put these funds into The Cancer Couch Foundation to specifically focus on MBC and we could not be more honored! They trust and know that our money (100%) goes to cutting edge labs (at Dana-Farber and MSKCC) who only focus on MBC and all funds will be anonymously MATCHED! I don't (and can't right now) do walks or runs or even nights out for breast cancer events because of my current treatment but this, even I can do. This weekend my daughter and I will pick a recipe from their website, make it gluten free - because she has celiac, and post a picture of our goodies with the #bakeithappen on social media and THAT IS IT! $5 gets donated to TCCF!! It is that easy!! You can adjust them however you need to fit your dietary needs!

​Can't Bake? Donate! They make that so easy too! It all goes toward this life saving campaign!

To learn more about this awesome campaign you can see us on this WPIX clip from last year! Thank you for baking everyone - this only goes through October so let's all try to bake or donate this weekend before Halloween festivities kick in! 

Judy, their mom, loved to share her food - so consider surprising a neighbor, teacher, loved one, or someone you know who could just use some cheering up - with a box of this yummy goodwill! 

Happy Baking!!

We are also so grateful to partners Taste Buds Kitchen - as they are featuring Bake It Happen themed classes nationwide! If you live near any of these or have friends who do - let them know:

TBK East Greenwich, RI – October 19
TBK Bannockburn, IL – October 19
TBK Apex, NC – October 19 & 24
TBK Leawood, KS – October 20
TBK Southlake, TX – October 26
TBK Plano, TX – October 26

This unexpected bucket-list moment of being asked to come up and sing on stage with The Wailers was just the absolute icing on the cake of such an amazing night. The love and generosity of all 600+ people in the room was palpable. You came. You heard. You donated. Most importantly, you had fun. Metastatic breast cancer continues to claim the lives of over 42,000 Americans each year. 116 men and women die from this disease in the US every single day. Although we are starting to make progress and have more and more treatments coming available, they tend to not work for very long and the prognosis for those of us with Stage 4 breast cancer, has not changed in decades - 2-3 years. That is why we can not give up the fight to get more research funding put toward MBC!! 

Thank you all so much for helping The Cancer Couch move this needle and fund critical, life-saving research! The dust is still settling on the event as both donations and expenses are still coming in but it looks like we are around our annual goal of raising about 250k at this event - which will be matched to 500k! That is enough to fund two studies and make an actual difference real time for this disease. We fund the top MBC labs - at Dana-Farber and MSKCC so you can trust where your donation is going and that it will be put to the BEST use ASAP! 

I will be making my site visits to these labs in November to deliver the checks personally, meet everyone in the lab, and choose the projects we fund for next year (with the advisement of our medical research board). Cancer doesn't take a day off - so we can't either! Thank you so much for your support. As I said at the event, I am just the one holding the flashlight to shine on this need but you are all the ones in the light making the difference to save lives and permanently change the landscape for anyone who gets breast cancer. 

Onto our next campaign which is already in full swing and you'll be hearing more about Bake It Happen - it is so easy! Just Bake one of their recipes, take a pic, post it on social media and tag them #bakeithappen and $5 will be donated to TCCF - just like that!!! If you don't have social media you can email them - all info on their website!! These two amazing sisters, Shari and Stacy, started this campaign to honor their mom Judy who died from MBC. TCCF is the lucky partner and recipient of this awesome and tasty campaign! 

And...I'm dusting off my old soccer cleats to be featured on ESPN on October 23rd for breast cancer awareness month so tune in! More info to come!!!