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The
Event
May 1-5, 2008: Kari Worth, a Napa
Valley mother of two young children
and her father Michael Worth of
Baywood Park, Ca., will embark
on a five-day walk from Napa Valley
to San Francisco. The adventure
will mark the FIFTH anniversary
of Kari’s diagnosis with stage
IV melanoma and will celebrate
a huge milestone—the gift of
once again living life cancer free!
Kari and her father will be walking
the route traveled so many times,
both in sickness and now, in great
health. Beginning
from her home in warm sunny Napa
Valley on May 1st, they will walk
west into the Sonoma Valley and
to Schellville for their first
night. They will spend their second
day trekking through the Sonoma
and Petaluma River Valleys to Ignacio
for night number two. A third
day will begin as they head south
and end in downtown San Rafael. Day
four will be a rigorous day of
traversing the hills of Marin County
and hiking into the Marin
Headlands.
On Monday May 5th—nationally
recognized as 'Melanoma
Monday,' part of National
Skin Cancer Detection and Prevention
Month—they
will hike out of the Headlands,
and walk across the Golden Gate
Bridge into San Francisco, over
Pacific Heights and to California
Pacific Medical Center to deliver
a bottle of bubbly to Dr.
David Minor, Kari’s treating
oncologist for the last five years.
The walking conditions will be
diverse: urban and suburban
roads and sidewalks, abandoned
railroad right-of-ways, bike and
hiking paths, fire roads, a river
crossing, and the Golden Gate span
itself. They will stay in
motels/inns, at friends, and in
the Marin Headlands Hostel. There
will be many environments--malls,
shops, restaurants and motels to
farmlands, vineyards and undeveloped
recreation areas. Most days will
likely have a UV
Index of 8-10 and temperatures
probably in 70s and 80s. Near
zero chance of rain (we hope).
This is a wacky personal quest
to put a challenging chapter of
Kari’s life to rest and a
feat that she hopes will help unite
the melanoma community while raising
much needed awareness regarding
sun safety and funds for melanoma
research. Kari’s experience
has introduced her to a world of
dedicated people and organizations
that are out there on the forefront
spreading the word about sun safety,
supporting and advocating for those
with melanoma and searching for
new treatments. It is her hope
that the long journey of the last
five years and the upcoming long
journey of the first five days
of this May, will make a difference
in the life of some other person,
sadly diagnosed with advanced melanoma,
in the future. Or better
yet, that it will help prevent
that person from getting melanoma
at all!
Kari's father, Mike, is
a veteran traveler
with hiking, mountaineering,
sea kayaking and sailing experience
as well as overland travel
in Latin America, the Middle East
and South Asia. Kari's own
experience ranges from Brazil to
Borneo, and includes the Yucatan,
Kenya and Europe. They both
believe that this going to be an
amazing adventure in their ‘own
backyard.'
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