Today I am going to thank Courtney Smith Rae for introducing me to Meg Berte in 2003. We had coffee in Grand Central. Meg and I compared cancer war stories. Her story made mine sound like a bad hair day.

Six years ago, almost to the day, Meg wrote me this email:

After I "survived" I had three years of hell (and this was AFTER the treatment). My intestine was mangled, I lost 30 pounds and the doctors didn't know how I might be able to keep food down -- I couldn't get surgery to repair my intestine b/c of all the chemo. Then, one after the other, both of my lungs collapsed when I was at HBS. I was so angry!! I had endured years of treatment to keep being bombarded with issues, month after month...but, eventually things calmed down and the problems stopped.

My doctors say that I am an example of someone where everything can go wrong and I am still here!! I think about your health all the time, and you seem to be responding to the tough stuff by living like a rockstar.
I applaud you! Life is only today and whatever happens to either of us, we will always know that we lived lifetimes in whatever time we are allotted. You are my hero again and again. Thank you. Meg

Meg's story is in the Survivors chapter of "More Than 85 Broads." She was a dazzling ray of sunshine. In 2005, she told me that she wanted to ride in the Tour of Hope with Lance Armstrong. Meg had become an avid cyclist and she really wanted to make the team but there were only 23 spots. I recently told a group of women at Wharton that it's not who you meet, it's who you connect. I connected Meg to 85 Broads rockstar Karen Cook who was on Lance's foundation board. Karen connected Meg to Lance and the rest was history. There is a phenomenal picture of Lance steadying Meg's bike at one point during the Tour of Hope. That picture is worth 1000 words.

You were my hero Meg and always will be.