The Cause

This trip is not only something that the two of us want to do for the adventure and the experience, but also to raise awareness of a silent and unexpected killer that took the life of my mom this past June.

My mom, Julie, was an RN who loved to help everyone. She had two children who she loved very much, myself and my older sister Tansy. She was also very happily married to my father, Tim Sweet. June 5, the day she unexpectedly passed away, was also their 29th wedding anniversary.

Not long before her passing she had under gone surgery for carpal tunnel and on the varicose veins in her legs. She was on blood thinners for a period of time afterwards, to make sure things went to plan, and was eventually taken off of them when the time seemed right.

Evidently it was a bit soon. On the morning of June 5, she passed away in her sleep after a DVT  let loose in her leg, traveled up her body, and caused a pulmonary embolism, taking her life almost instantly.

My mother always tried her hardest to put everyone before herself. She was an amazing nurse, wife, mother, and friend. Losing her without warning was devastating to me, my family, and anyone that knew her. I'm hoping that through this trip I can raise money to donate towards the research and prevention of DVT/PE. Specifically the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, where they have a research and treatment center. Any donation $50 and over will qualify for the section 501(c3) tax exemption, so keep that in mind :)

http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/dvt/research.html

Any amount of money raised helps, but our goal is to be sponsored $1.00 per mile, so roughly a total of $2,552. I will be setting up a PayPal account for online transactions and also in the process of making a brochure to be shared with the public. My email address is camden.sweet@gmail.com if you would like to contact me directly.