Article from Unity on the Bay - Miami
Row, Bob, Row!
Bob Lynch rowing for a cure.
We Love You, Bob & Sue…
Love is the mantra of nearly a thirty-five year marriage between Bob and Sue Lynch. And their fifteen year affiliation with Unity on the Bay affirms their dedication to their marriage and God. They committed their lives to serve humanity with the love that they know as the true mission in their lives. At Unity on the Bay, they have tithed their time and talents. Check this out: Board members, Sunday service greeters, 4-T participants, Friendship Sunday Coordinators, Music Fest, Holiday Fair, Coordinator of our first Adventures in Faith, and Interim Executive Director of the Church, and the endless list of other services.
Bob spent his twenty-five year award-winning administrative career with the Florida State Department of Labor as Quality Control Analyst, Administrator of Internal Security, Appeals Referee, and Appeal Referee Supervisor. When Bob decided to take an early retirement in 1998, due to his health, it was estimated that he had presided over 20,000 hearings. That year, they created EITHER OAR CANCER SURVIVOR ROW.
In Sue's thirty year education employment history with the State of Florida, she has served from elementary to college level, most recently as Director of Transfer Services and Articulation at Florida International University and earned her Ph.D. in 1995.
During a routine annual physical in 1995, Bob was diagnosed with a little-known terminal rare blood cancer illess (medical opinion), Waldenstrom's Macoglobulinemia, affecting only 6.1 men and 2.5 women per million. They decided that the "sentence" did not belong to them. Bob tried conventional medicine including 18 months of chemotherapy. After that he tried unconventional healthy life-style methods, including meditations, vitamins, reduced stress and increased exercise. This led to an adventure that Bob felt would give him an opportunity to show the world what a whole, healthy, perfect child of God can do even with cancer.
This is Bob's fourth cancer survivor row. In 1998 Bob successfully rowed from Key West to Miami, a trip of 150 miles. Then in 2000, Bob rowed 200 miles from Melbourne to Miami. In 2001 Bob and some of his closest and craziest friends rowed from Stuart across the state to Ft. Myers, a trip of 155 miles. This year Bob will be rowing from Melbourne to Jacksonville to celebrate the gift of his last 11 years of life. This row also completes Bob rowing the entire east coast of Florida, from Jacksonville to Key West. When will he ever stop, (Maine?).
Bob says, "I do these rows to raise people's consciousness and funds for Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia cancer research." All proceeds from the "ROW" will go to the International Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization created to distribute research funds to deserving facilities.
If you would like to help Bob find a cure, you can contribute online at www.IWMF.com <http://www.iwmf.com/JoinVltr.htm>.
As always, Bob and Sue ask you to keep them in their prayers and thoughts.
Either Oar Cancer Survivor Row
Melbourne to Jacksonville
June 5, 2006
