February 8. That’s the day that changed my family’s world.

My wife, Jen, was extremely healthy. She was a runner. She was absolutely beautiful. You would look at her and say, there’s nothing wrong with this person. But after years of unexplainable health issues, Jen was in her mid-40s when she was finally diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer.

Jen immediately started on drug therapies and for 18-months it worked. Our family lived the best year and a half of our lives. That time was worth everything. But reality soon caught up with us.

There’s so much we still don’t understand about lung cancer, even though it claims more lives each year than breast, pancreatic and prostate cancer combined. That’s why my family and I are participating in the Free to Breathe Walk: because we have to find a cure.

Join me and other families who have lost a loved one to this disease by supporting the Lung Cancer Research Foundation, a leader in funding scientific breakthroughs. Your gift can help fund research that’s helping scientists learn so much about lung cancers like the one that took Jen too soon.

Two months after we celebrated our last Thanksgiving and Christmas together – almost three years to the date of her initial diagnosis – Jen passed away.

We saw breakthroughs on the horizon, and we kept saying to ourselves, just buy time, just buy time, because it’s coming, it’s coming. Unfortunately, time ran out for us.

Jen knew that research is the only way to find a cure, and I am continuing what Jen started as a tribute to her legacy. Help fund research so that the next families faced with this diagnosis can survive it – not just for 18 months but for 18 years and beyond.