Thursday, April 8, 2010 Dedham Transcript wickedlocaldedham.

com

NEWS

QUESTIONS, COMMENTS AND NEWS TIPS can be sent to editor Andrea Salisbury at 781-433-8322 or dedham@cnc.com.

Steps for a cure

Team raises money for 3-Day walk
By Andrea Salisbury
STAFF WRITER
COURTESY IMAGE

Stay still
Julia Haelson, right, 5, of Dedham has her face painted by Nichole Smith, left, during last weeks Rotary Club Pancake Breakfast at Dedham High School.

PHOTO BY SEAN BROWN

When her close friend, Seona Standard, was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer in September of 2009, everything changed for Mara Gorden. The diagnosis was extreme, the Dedham resident said on a recent Thursday morning. It already spread to the liver. Standard, a Needham resident and mother of two young girls, was getting a massage when she felt a pain in her breast. Gorden said everything moved so quickly afterwards. Standard called her doctor, had multiple mammograms that didnt detect the lump, and finally an ultrasound detected the lump in her breast. Tests later showed the stage four breast cancer had spread to her liver, Gorden said. At the time of the diagnosis, Standard was 38. They caught it so late in the game, Gorden said. What could have happened? I dont know. Could she have just dropped dead, and no one would have known why? It is just such a horrifying thought. After 18 weeks of chemotherapy and treatment, Standards cancer is in remission. Nobody expected, no body. It is really incredible, Gorden said. Shes made unbelievable changes to her lifestyle in terms of meditation. Shes completely revamped her diet and taken all kinds of supplements, acupuncture, and massage. But, Gorden admits, the fight isnt over. Stage four breast cancer is going to come back, she said. So now the hope is to keep it under control. This is where team Mind Over Matter steps in. On July 23, Gorden, Standards husband, John, and Dedham resident Janet Holmes will join thousands in Boston for the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for a Cure. Our slogan is team Mind Over Matter, 60-miles in 3 days, one breath at a time, Gorden said. A lot of that is to

Attorney eyes run for Walshs seat

By Edward B. Colby
STAFF WRITER

represent Seonas whole way of being, in terms of how shes embraced yoga and meditation as a way of being in battling this horrible disease. Though the walk is months away, Gorden said her team is in fundraising and training mode. Each of us have to raise individually $2,300, Gorden said. As of Tuesday afternoon the team has collectively raised $5,921. Gorden said she has exceeded the required amount but plans to raise much more. It is a really good goal to have. To say that you can walk 60 miles in three days, that is something to aspire to, Gorden said. I also look at it like, if she can go through chemo every single week and all that goes with that. I am going to walk 60 miles and it is going to end. Her struggle never ends. Gorden has been walking every weekend with Homes, rain or shine. She admits that walking 60 miles is a bit overwhelming. But Janet and I are out there. Gorden said. We are up to 10.5 miles on the weekends. (The 3-day) has a really good program, in terms of guiding you through a 24-week training program. So it is not like suddenly you have to walk 60 miles. In preparing for their walk, Gorden said her team has a string of fundraisers lined up, with one planned for Saturday at Uno Chicago Grill on Providence Highway. For this fundraiser, Uno will donate 20 percent of participants checks to the team. To get your ticket e-mail teammindeovermatter3day@gmail.com or visit www.thegordens.com/mindove rmatter.htm. Gorden and her team will be at the restaurant collecting donations and selling team Mind Over Matter T-shirts. The pink shirts feature the team logo - a yoga person sitting with hands

Want to get involved?

Uno Chicago Grill fundraiser When: Saturday, April 10 Where: 270 Providence Highway Ticket: www.thegordens.com/mindover matter.htm Yard Sale When: Saturday, May 15 (rain date May 16) Time: 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Where: 289 Concord Road, Bedford, MA Information: Team Mind Over Matter is seeking donations of any type of good condition items. They are also renting tables for $20 each. All table rentals and money raised will go directly to the team. They will be selling team T-shirts at the event. For more details, to donate or to reserve a table call Daisy at 339-223-3099

in Namaste and on the back the local sponsors: Yoga Energy, Blue Bunny bookstore, Do you know Daisy?, Maribu, Trendz, Kouzina, Caf Fresh Bagel, Grogan and Company, Dedham Savings Bank, Gorman Associates, Dedham Junior Womans Club and Murray Muscular Therapy Associates. Gorden said the outpouring of local support has been incredible. L.L. Bean has donated three camel-pack backpacks for the walk. For Gorden, helping spread the word and supporting the research done through Komen is the goal of the entire walk. The philosophy behind Komen is someday we wont have to walk because there will be a cure, she said. In my childrens lifetime there wont be this whole need to fundraise because there wont be a problem anymore. Dedham Transcript editor Andrea Salisbury can be reached at asalisbu@cnc.com or 781-433-8322.

The Democratic primary field for an open state Senate seat has a new candidate: Westwood attorney Michael F. Walsh. He said hes running for the seat long held by state Sen. Marian Walsh because nobodys being impacted more by the economy than small businesses right now. That includes his own Westwood law office, at 9 Westwood Terrace, which once had four employees but now has just two Walsh and a secretary. Its time to start getting people back to work, and it starts with small businesses, he said. Nobody generates more work than small business to get the economy going. Walsh promoted creating incentives to get people off unemployment rolls and back at work floating a moratorium on payroll taxes for six months or a year. Small business creates more jobs in the country than large business. Thats why its important to give us a tax initiative to start hiring more people. If every small business puts one more person to work, pretty soon well be in much better shape, he said in a phone interview today. It wont cure it overnight, but it will get it started, and thats what we need. Walsh, 47, said he is putting together a campaign commit-

tee and intends to gather the 300 signatures he needs to get on the ballot due April 27. He said he would also be out in Dedham collecting signatures on its election day, Saturday, April 10. In the September primary he would go up against state Rep. Michael Rush, D-West Roxbury, who has been actively targeting the Senate seat since last year. Rush, a fourth-term House member, would be the decided favorite. Michael Walsh said he seriously considered running a year ago, after Marian Walsh lined up a high-paying job at an obscure state financing authority. She ultimately withdrew from the position after heavy criticism of her and Gov. Deval Patrick. In January she announced she would not run for another term in the Senate, where she has been since 1993. Michael Walsh finished last in a four-way race for two Norfolk County commissioner seats in November 2008, learning the hard way that independent candidates rarely get elected. He returned to the Democratic rolls two days after the election. (One bright spot was his win in Westwood, with 37 percent.) Then, last April, Walsh lost an election for the Westwood Housing Authority by 63 votes. I put my name on the ballot, and then I didnt campaign at all, and I only lost by 60 votes, he said, adding that he is opti-

mistic there will be a different result this time. Walsh, who has been a workers compensation attorney for 22 years, grew up in Dorchester and lived in West Roxbury for 11 years before moving to Westwood in 2006. The Senate district includes West Roxbury, parts of Hyde Park and Roslindale, and Dedham, Norwood and Westwood. So I know city politics and now for the last four years, I know town politics. I know how they work, Walsh emphasized. He sketched out his positions on other issues, saying Massachusetts needs more 24hour community health centers so people dont have to run to the emergency room if theyre not in a dire emergency, cutting down on costs from unnecessary ER visits. The sales tax should be rolled back from 6.25 to 5 percent, he said. Theyre looking for alternatives, whether they buy online, whether they go to New Hampshire, Walsh said of consumers. The 6.25 (rate) is not helping the economy the way it shouldbecause people are looking for ways to avoid it. Walsh said he is late getting out of the gate because I really had to get my wife on board. They have three children who are 6, 8 and 10 years old. You have to be out six nights, seven nights a week, you have to make sure your wifes on board with that, he said.

Mother of Three Down to 114 Pounds!

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Cathy McDevitt Age 49 Stay-At-Home Mother of 3

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