THE INSPIRATION BEHIND PINK HYDRATION

 Co-Founder - Patty Pierleonardi

When my mother was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer at age 62, my life was turned upside down.  My mother was a super hero...how could she get cancer?  She had her own home building company, an online business, five children and nine grandchildren. 

Cancer did not run in our family and was never a thought in our mind.  She took on the challenge, as she did all challenges, head on.  She had a mastectomy right away and chemo treatments right after. For five years she was told that she was cancer-free!  We were thrilled! 

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Then I received the phone call that I will never forget.  My mother asked me "Are you alone? I want to make sure someone is with you when I tell you something."  When she told me that she found out at her follow-up appointment that her cancer was back, now Stage 4, and it had spread into her bones and brain, my legs gave out from under me and I fell to the kitchen floor and sobbed.  She told me that the hardest part of having cancer is telling her children. 

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She again, started the battle of fighting this disease with all she had while the chemo treatments took away her hair, created blisters on her feet and hands and made it difficult to swallow.  Her ribs were breaking one by one and the hallucinations started.  My mother was dying. 

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I was by my mother's side as she took her last breath in her own bed.  My mother lost the battle with cancer, not because she didn't fight, but because she ran out of weapons.  I knew from that point on, I needed to do something for this cause.  I watched my father remain on this Earth without his wife of 54 years, sad and unable to function.  I saw the devastation cancer does to a family.  I watched my own children grieve for the loss of their grandmother.  Happiness had disappeared from my family. 

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I understand the importance of giving families that are grieving an opportunity to smile. With Pink Hydration/Water for a cause, we are giving families something fun in their life during a devastating time.  We are showing them that life is still here to live.  We are making memories for the family members that are still on this Earth, that need support.  This is so important...that is why I do it.