Last year, Molly Giudice just wanted her mom, Mary McQuade Giudice, to attend a Wakefield (Rhode Island) Prout School swim meet.
“My mom was a perfectly healthy, wonderful woman who was extremely involved in my life,” Giudice said. “One day coming home to the news that she had stage four lung cancer was news I never expected to receive.”
With the understanding that the 2012-13 swim season would be the last that Mary would be able to attend Giudice wanted to do something special. Thus, the “Make a Splash for Mary” swim meet was born with both teams wearing pink swim caps and selling t-shirts to raise money for lung cancer awareness.
“I’m not the kind of person that can sit by and watch things happen,” Giudice said. “But there wasn’t much I could do in this situation.”
But her mother passed away months sooner than expected and the meet took on a new meaning – honoring her mother’s life.
Arranging the meet required cooperation from the opponent Smithfield (Rhode Island) High School and according to Giudice, coach David Cote was so supportive. She described the support from her school and teammates as unbelievable and believed it was partially due to the small Catholic school environment the Prout School provides.
“It helps so much to have people behind you every step of the way,” Giudice said.
With the help of everyone involved, the meet raised more than $5,000 by selling t-shirts and swim caps. The money was donated to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute for Lung Cancer Research.
The team has discussed the idea of a second fundraising meet, but Giudice said people can only buy so many t-shirts and swim caps. Her suggestion is to have the two teams wear their swim caps from last year as a way to honor her mom.
The success of the “Make a Splash for Mary” meet garnered a lot of publicity including an article in the “Providence Journal.” Providence College Swim Coach John O’Neill’s family was also touched by lung cancer. Once he read the article he got in touch with Giudice and explained how he wanted to bring the Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Walk to Rhode Island.
“I was thrilled,” Giudice said. “I was more than happy to do everything I could to help with it.”
Giudice’s willingness to help put on the walk resulted in raising more than $50,000.
Now, with a swim meet and walk under her belt, Giudice plans to continue to raise awareness for lung cancer.
“Lung cancer is a silent killer and there is not much that can be done for patients,” Giudice said. “I want people to understand lung cancer and I have seen what it can do to a person and how it can hurt them.”
Giudice also believes that there is a horrible misconception that lung cancer only affects people who smoke and therefore bring the disease upon themselves. She knows this to be untrue since her mother was not a smoker and lived a healthy lifestyle.
In the end, Giudice wants research and testing to be funded to the point that when someone is diagnosed doctors are able to know what to do to make these patients better.
“I want to be a small part of making that happen,” Giudice said.
The “Make a Splash for Mary” swim meet started as a way to honor Giudice’s mom and show Mary the number of people that were supporting her. In the end, it honored her life while giving Giudice a platform to share her mom’s story and continue to find ways to raise lung cancer awareness.