An American Idol Winner ran in Meg's family race and helped raise $2-million!

Remember my beautiful friend, Megan Barber?
(She lives here in Colorado Springs and is a frequent contributor to the Gazette's Your Hub. You can see her in a family photo on the April 16th post.) Well, hers is a tremenous example of a family taking a loss and turning it into amazing action. Meg's brother Pat Cassidy died of brain cancer ten years ago, leaving behind a young family. The Cassidy clan (and it's a large one) started a fund-raising race in his honor. Success is apparently a Cassidy gene. Get a load of what this has become. Here's a letter from Megan's sister Ceil.

Ann,
Ceil Cassidy Haus here, Megan Barber’s sister. I want to thank you so much for your generous support of the RACE FOR HOPE last weekend in Washington, DC.

This year, American Idol winner David Cook joined the race, revealing in the closing ceremonies that his brother had died of brain cancer the day before.

Thanks to David and all the wonderful runners and donor, this event raised $2 million, providing funds for reserach and support to those in the thick of the disease.

This is always an emotional day for us, as we see families who have lost loved ones (like we have) and families who have survivors still fighting off brain cancer. It’s a terrible disease and the only way we make progress is to continue to fund the research and hope and pray that one day a breakthrough will come. The National Brain Tumor Society and Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure are the two beneficiaries. Over the years, they have funded grants at Duke University’s Brain Tumor Center and Johns Hopkins Brain Cancer Research Center and more and the work continues. Thank you again for your kindness and very generous donation. I speak for the Cassidy family when we say how grateful we are to those who help us support this fight!