Luling teaching giving her all for 14-year-old cousin suffering from brain cancer
When Dana Dufrene learned the terrible news — that her 14-year-old cousin, Rylee Pizani, had been diagnosed with brain cancer — her empathy immediately overtook her emotions.
“You hear about it and you think about your own children and you put yourself in the shoes of her mother,” Dufrene said. “After that, it became, how can I help them?”
The Luling Elementary School teacher found a way she hopes will do just that by blending Rylee’s cause with another one of her passions.
Dufrene is “Racing for Rylee” in more ways than one — literally — as she is in the midst of a grueling two competition stretch. She entered the New Orleans Ironman competition on Oct. 21 and then, just two weeks later, she’ll be running the New York City Marathon on Nov. 4.
The Luling woman is participating in honor of Pizani and has reached out to the community for support for the teen’s family through a GoFundMe page, titled “Racing for Rylee” (gofundme.com/racing-for-rylee), which has served as a sponsorship page for Dufrene’s push for the cause. All funds raised will go toward offsetting medical and travel cost for the Pizani family.
Dufrene said Pizani began having seizures in February and has already endured three brain surgeries since then. Currently, her prognosis for recovery is good, Dufrene said, but added Pizani’s journey is far from over.
“The poor baby, she’s still sick from the surgery … she’s nauseous from everything,” Dufrene said. “But it was a miracle they found it when they did and that they were able to take her case.”
Pizani’s mother has been unable to work as she cares for her daughter, and her father has had to take time off as well. The family has been traveling for treatment at St. Jude Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., escalating costs even more.
Dufrene was a driving force behind the creation of a running club at Luling Elementary, and she said the effects of that on her own physical and mental well-being have been tremendous. It made the idea to train for and take on these two physical challenges in the name of her cousin a natural pursuit.
The Ironman competition took each participant through an endurance test of 70.3 miles, which include a 1.2 mile swim in open water, a 56 mile bike ride and then a 13.1 mile run. The New York Marathon, meanwhile, is a straight 26.2 mile run.
She’s wanted to try her hand at either for awhile, and actually trained in the summer of 2017 for that year’s Ironman event.
“I trained and trained, did those workouts in the hot sun, and then that sucker was cancelled,” she said. “I thought, ‘no way am I doing this again.’”
But this summer, she explored the idea again.
“I felt really strong,” she said. “So I signed up again.”
She will also be able to compete at the New York Marathon, which she gained entry to through her group’s completion of running program for students called “New York Rising Runners.”
“I didn’t have to qualify … I’m not the fastest runner. But I do get to go,” Dufrene said.
Her weeks are jam-packed, between her teaching duties — and those as a mother — and her daily training exercises, some of which are done with her students and some of which are done on her own. Each Saturday yields a long run, while Sundays she takes to her bicycle.
While an exercise and training regular, this was her first ever Ironman competition and just her second marathon.
“I’ve questioned myself, ‘Am I really gonna do this?’” she said. “Am I strong enough, because I’m not a big person. But it doesn’t matter. If you want it, you can do it.”
Rylee’s cause is that much more motivation for her when those doubts creep in. The same goes for the teen’s poise, Dufrene said.
“She’s just 14, and she’s handling all of this with total grace,” Dufrene said, noting that word, Grace, is an apt description that’s also Pizani’s middle name. “How can you ever expect a 14-year-old to deal with all of this? People want to help them, but with something this major, sometimes people aren’t sure how.
“But when you see this happen to a young girl, it makes you realize it can happen to anyone. That’s an inspiration and it just pushes you to realize you have to keep going.”
As for her ultimate goal at each competition? She said it starts with a simple step.
“You can’t finish what you don’t start,” Dufrene said. “Keep going, and don’t quit.”
Be the first to comment