Peggy Flannigan

Retired Chair of the Walk for the Mind, 2005-2020

I joined the Walk for the Mind committee immediately after the first Walk when I asked Mark Linder, the founder of the Walk, if I could help the following year. I was so excited when I got the flyer in the mail for that first Walk, that I knew it was something I just had to be involved with. I had been diagnosed with a brain tumor only a year earlier and at the first Walk for the Mind, I felt like I had just found a network of friends that could relate to my experience. It was important to me to join forces with this group. Together we could do something to help others who would be diagnosed with a brain tumor. Mark and I became friends through the Walk for the Mind, but only a few short weeks after the 3rd Annual Walk, he lost his battle with brain cancer. Each time I lost a friend, my commitment to the Walk was reinforced. I realized that brain tumors would continue to claim friends until the day we find a cure. I feel so fortunate that my tumor diagnosis has not prevented me from continuing Mark’s mission to raise awareness of brain tumors and money for research on brain tumors. My hope is that someday brain tumors will be in our past.