As a cancer survivor, it is natural to be concerned about families that have to deal with cancer issues every day. In 2006 I participated in the 3 day 60 mile walk for breast cancer in Atlanta. It was one of the most inspiring, emotional, and hardest 3 days of my life. That walk started me on a journey that would eventually lead to "Soccer For A Cure".

Soon after completing the 3-day walk, a 5 year old grandson of some dear friends was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. The doctors didn't give him much more than a year to live. The life of everyone in that family was turned upside down during the next year. Since he had to have constant care his mother decided to put her career on hold, stay home, and become the primary care giver. The dad's job required that he travel. He decided it was more important for him to be available if needed during his son's illness so he stepped down a rung into a job with less responsibility and less pay so he could be close by. It was a tough year for the whole family.

Within a month after I heard the news about our friend's grandson, my daughter found the Brain Tumor Foundation for Children web site and saw that they were having a 5K walk/run fund raiser event in our area. We both decided to enter and raise money in honor of this child.

Soon after the event was over I was fortunate to meet Mary Campbell, the executive director of Brain Tumor Foundation for Children. Over the next several months, I had a number of visits with her and we talked about how I could more actively help families dealing with cancer issues. What I wanted to do was to come up with a way to use the resources that I had developed while working with college and high school soccer over the past 15+ years. After struggling with this issue for about a year, I settled on the concept of developing a team called "Soccer For A Cure" by inviting soccer fans from every state to "Stand Together as a Team" and "Help Families fight the Battle".