This event (hopefully to be the first annual one of many), which will take place in both Seattle and San Diego in October of this year. The Seattle one has shaped up a bit bigger, but we have quite a lot of avid divers here in San Diego and are hoping to ramp this up to be a bigger event in years to come.

This event holds special meaning to me, as I have been a diver for 14 years and a breast cancer survivor for nearly 5 years. I was diagnosed at 33 years old, when I was "too young" to have cancer. I am lucky - my disease was caught at an early stage, and other than a few months of chemotherapy and several surgeries, I was ready to get back in the water.

I was an avid diver before "the issue", but I had moved from the warm waters of Florida to the Midwest and then to Boston to pursue advanced education, and I was only able to dive during vacations. Once I completed my treatments, I got drysuit certified and began to dive all the time in the chilly waters of New England. I moved to San Diego this January, and I dive even more here than I did in Boston. I feel certain that diving helped me to regain my sense of self and helped me to avert the depression and helplessness that many cancer survivors feel. As a result, combining these two very important pieces of my life is incredibly moving for me. I am liaising the event in San Diego with a breast cancer awareness group I belong to, the Young Survival Coalition (www.youngsurvival.org), whose members supported me during my diagnosis and treatment.

If you'd like more information on this event check out the in-progress website at www.diveforthecure.com.

Best regards,

Allison Vitsky