Editor’s Note: Jim Anderson is a former Staff Writer and one of the Founders of GamesEyeView.com. Early this year, his mother lost an almost 20 year battle with breast cancer. This is the story of his participation in the annual Fight Like a Girl Tournament, which helps raise money for breast cancer treatment, in her honor:
For the last 5 years, near the end of October, a group of gamers have been putting on a little Halo tournament to raise research money and awareness for breast and cervical cancers. Appropriately, the tournament was called Fight Like A Girl or FLAG. As a gamer, I have been following this tournament for the past 3 years watching as it grew from a small tournament until last year when it amassed nearly $7,000. During that time I debated on playing in the tournament as I am a pretty decent Halo player, but also because I had another reason for playing.
Since 1992, my Mom had lived with breast cancer. At the time she was diagnosed it was a stage 3 out of 4 possible stages. After undergoing a mastectomy, chemotherapy, and radiation treatments she was given about 5 years to live cancer free. During this time she did some amazing things. She took what she was given and turned it into something extraordinary. She started the first breast cancer support group in her hometown. She became a strong advocate while working with several regional and national breast cancer advocacy groups including the Linda Creed Foundation, National Breast Cancer Coalition and the Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition. She worked with the Department of Defense to recommend which research projects showed the most promise and should have funding. Along with all of this she earned her Master’s degree in social work. All of this was over the course of not 5, but 18 amazing years.
Two years ago I had mentioned something to her about playing in the FLAG tournament. She was willing to sponsor me, but unfortunately my work schedule would not permit me to play in the tournament. In the summer of 2010, I found that my Mom was coming to the end of her road. She had been in and out of the hospital several times and the chemotherapy she was on had failed. She was unable to keep food down and when she was feeling well enough to eat she just didn’t have the appetite. Rather than play a game, I was more concerned with taking care of her and making sure that she was comfortable. In January of this year, she lost her fight with breast cancer. Not long after she died I made her a promise; that I would try to continue the fight for her in any way possible. This promise brought me back to the FLAG tournament this year.
This year I was going to play, but with working only part time and going to school at the same time, my finances were unable to pay for the entry fee. So I turned to my friends and family, who all responded so amazingly. Not only did they pay my entry fee, but they helped me to raise nearly $200 and that’s only from the people that told me they donated. Another friend of mine who works for the local television Fox affiliate was able to convince a reporter to show my story. During the tournament the reporter did three separate takes on my story. Each one airing during their newscasts throughout the night. It was pretty surreal, but I didn’t do it for the recognition or for the donations.
In the back of my head, the entire time I was playing, I kept thinking how happy I was to keep the fight going for my Mom. I felt like she was sitting there with me while I played. For every shot I took in the game I felt like I was striking back at cancer for what it has taken away from me. However, in the end I did not win my portion of the tournament, but it didn’t really matter to me. I had raised a lot of awareness, a good chunk of change, and shared Mom’s story with countless people (including you dear reader). Even though I didn’t win anything from the tournament I feel that I did win something for my Mom by keeping her memory alive and attempting to finish the fight that she began so many years ago.
