About Linda’s Walk for Life
Linda’s Walk for Life is designed to call attention to the dangers of lung cancer in non-smoking women. Sponsored by the California Cancer Foundation, Linda’s Walk for Life aims to raise the awareness of this disease. It is our hope that through education and awareness the public and their doctors will better understand how this disease can be properly diagnosed and treated. With continued support from the public, and awareness raising events, it is the hope of the California Cancer Foundation that this disease might one day even be prevented. Linda’s Walk for Life is named in memory of Linda Bogdanoff, who fought an inspiring battle against lung cancer. Linda passed away on December 26th, 2005 at the age of 49.

Linda’s Story
I met Linda on the beach in the spring of 1996. North Laguna Beach was her favorite because of its beauty and tranquility. We were both single parenting our children from previous marriages and when they met and played together on the beach, it was inevitable that Linda and I would meet, date and marry in September 1998. Linda brought a strength and love to me and  my children that we had never had before and in the Capistrano Beach Calvary Church, she found what we had never known before... GOD!

The greatest gift we would ever know. The children joined the youth groups, Linda was involved in the children’s ministry and I built whatever the Church required. Linda sponsored two orphans in Russia. Her love for everyone, including complete strangers was unbelievable. She would say, “Never judge as so you will be judged and love everyone unconditionally.” This is truly who she was.

Throughout our years, we did everything together. Some said that they never saw us apart anywhere. At the church, store, bank, we were always together. We were truly best friends, soul mates and totally in love. There was just no one else we wanted to be doing things with except each other. In November 2004, Linda developed a cough and went to our family doctor. He said she had restrictive airway disease and because she appeared healthy, was a woman and had never smoked, the thought of ordering a chest x-ray did not cross his mind. He gave her an inhaler, and then added a steroid. It didn’t help... Finally, a chest x-ray was done revealing a massive collection of fluid around the right lung and when it was removed and examined under the microscope, cancer cells were seen. Linda had the ‘Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer of Nonsmoking Women.’ The shock was devastating. CT scans revealed the cancer had spread to her ribs, lower spine and thighbones. The oncologist told her she had six months to live. At the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, further studies demonstrated multiple brain metastases. Linda’s speech and writing were affected, walking was impaired and the headaches were intolerable. This ‘Stealth Cancer’ had moved in and spread. It was merciless.

We left no stone unturned to find treatment to gain precious time. However, we were blocked at every turn either because research protocols had not yet been approved for patient entry or because Linda did not fit into the study criteria. By a stoke of luck, through Linda’s grammar school classmate, Earl Beadle, project manager for telecasts of the national conferences of the California Cancer Foundation we found its founder, Dr. Bonorris and Dr. Ronald Natale at Cedars Sinai Hospital Los Angeles, Linda's hope, love and strength. They showed such love and compassion for Linda it was amazing. Radiation was directed to the brain metastases and chemotherapy was administered for three months along with the new ‘targeted agent’ Tarceva. She made it through like a champ. The headaches were gone, speech, writing and walking returned to normal. During that year, we traveled to Hawaii (twice), then Cabo San Lucas to swim, surf and spend all of our time together. Nutrition was a big part of her well-being and she took it very seriously, always in touch with Diane Wendall her nutritionist. Around the first week of December 2005, Linda started to feel back pain she had never felt before. Even though new scans showed nothing, a spinal fluid aspiration showed the presence of lung cancer cells. The cancer had infiltrated the thin membrane covering the brain and spinal cord where they were protected from chemotherapy and able to survive—a complication occurring ever more frequently in women with non-small cell lung cancer who respond to treatment and live long enough to develop meningeal carcinomatosis.

Linda passed away on Dec. 26, 2005.
She was 49 years old.
My prayer is that we will soon find a cure for this terrible illness that takes the lives of so many healthy women and leaves so many families with so much pain, loss and suffering. I have decided to continue to work to support and fund cancer research... In this way, maybe someday, the pain I feel now will hurt a little less, and when we find a cure for Lung Cancer in Nonsmoking Women, the memory of this wonderful woman will always live on because her suffering will not have been in vain.