Summerlin Half Marathon to benefit Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

This year, the Summerlin Half Marathon will benefit the Southern Nevada office of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. To help people train for the 13.1-mile event, the Summerlin Half Marathon is hosting the Team In Training program.

The race is scheduled for 7 a.m. April 12, but if people want to join the Team In Training component, they have until only mid-February to sign up.

According to teamintraining.org, the Team In Training program has trained more than a half million runners, walkers, triathletes, cyclists and hikers and raised more than $1.3 billion for research. The program offers a network of certified coaches and weekly group runs, as well as mentors for fundraising support and a website for online fundraising.

For more information or to sign up, visit teamintraining.org/snv.

Bruton-Berrey, 42, has eaten a vegetarian diet since her 20s and is a yoga instructor. She was so in tune with her body that she said she gave birth to her daughter, Ivy, 5, without any kind of pain relief measures.

Three months after that, Bruton-Berrey found a small lump behind her head. She found more lumps near her ears. Doctors were stumped. Other symptoms appeared: one side of her face went numb, she experienced pain on her forehead, “like nails being pounded into it,” she said; and her chin felt like it was on fire. Still, no one could help her.

After months of searching, she found a doctor who did not shrug at her symptoms. She underwent a battery of tests — a spinal tap and bone marrow testing — and had a lymph node removed. The diagnosis came back as non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

“At one point, they told me I would die in two weeks,” she said.

She was admitted to the hospital and underwent chemotherapy for 96 hours straight, something she called “brutal. … My son, Dylan, was 10. He told me, ‘I just want to know if you’re going to die.’ That was a tough conversation to have.”

Bruton-Berrey was released and underwent six months of follow-up treatments. The aggressive approach worked.

Besides the Team In Training component of the society, it also has a golf tournament called Links Fore Leukemia, the Light the Night Walk and the Man & Woman of the Year campaign.

Bob Holder, board of trustees chairman for the society’s Southern Nevada office, said most of the money raised goes directly to help locals.

“One treatment can cost several thousand dollars,” he said.

Last year, the society’s copay program helped 132 patients by dispersing more than $250,000.

The cost to register for the Summerlin Half Marathon is $75 until Feb. 22 and $85 from Feb. 23 to April 10. The cost to register at packet pickup, if space is available, will be $90. For more information, visit desertskyadventures.com/summerlin2014.

For more information about The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, visit lls.org.

Contact Summerlin/Summerlin South View reporter Jan Hogan at jhogan@viewnews.com or 702-387-2949.