Wendy Walk to Honor Legacy of its Driving Force

Hundreds of supporters plan to walk along Will Rogers State Beach in memory of a dynamic woman from the Palisades, Wendy Landes, on Sunday, May 5 to continue pressing attention to a rare and incurable cancer.

Sadly, the fourth annual Wendy Walk will be without Landes, the driving spirit behind an event her children Ali, Matt and Jackie began in 2010 in order to help raise awareness and proactively support their mom in her battle with Liposarcoma. The money raised from the Wendy Walk goes directly to funding international research for the disease.

It starts at 10 a.m. at Jonathan's Beach Club in Santa Monica.

Wendy passed away March 14 after a long fight with the deadly disease, according to her obituary in the Los Angeles Times. With as much strength as she could cultivate, Wendy asked her children to continue the Wendy Walk to find a cure for Liposarcoma.

"She asked us to continue the walk and we are doing all we can to honor her memory, by getting as many participants as possible in order to put Liposarcoma on the map," she said. "This year the most important thing is to honor her memory and walk in her spirit."

Throughout the 2012 walk season alone, 1,600 participants supported by thousands of donors raised a million dollars in the fight against Liposarcoma in partnership with the Liddy Shriver Sarcoma Initiative. 

Ali said they are expecting 500 people this year at the L.A. walk and their goal is to hit the $2 million mark. The walk is also held annually in New York City and Miami.

"This would mean that L.A. would have to bring in about $300,000 of research dollars to the Wendy Walk this year," Ali said. "We want people from all different sectors, backgrounds, and age groups to walk on Sunday in order to honor my mom's memory and spread awareness about this rare orphan cancer."

The Wendy Walk continues to expand nationally in participants and fundraising. This year the walk in Los Angeles will also honor Dr. Allan Silberman of Cedar Sinai Hospital.

"The success so far is that my mom's story has touched people deeply and then they have shared the story with a friend," Ali added. "We need to keep building upon this model in order for the organization to grow."

Liposarcoma is a soft tissue sarcoma. In relation to other types of cancer, soft tissue sarcomas are quite rare. Approximately 14,000 new cases of soft tissue sarcoma are diagnosed each year representing less than 1 percent of all newly diagnosed cancers.

For more information on the Wendy Walk and how to get involved, visit its website.

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