Lillibet in Motion Raises Funds for Breast Cancer
by Justin Haefner
As a young girl, Lillibet Motion lost her mother to breast cancer, and ever since, she’s been looking for a way to have some influence in helping to find a cure.
She finally got that chance last month when the Avon 39 Mile Walk for Breast Cancer came through Washington. As the description of the event says on the website, “You train to strengthen your body as you raise the funds to crush breast cancer.” It’s exactly what she wanted to do: contribute to breast cancer research and prove that the seemingly impossible could be possible with the right amount of will.
When she was six months old, Motion was first placed on a horse and since then she has spent a large portion of her life in a similar fashion.
“Riding a horse was just easier than sitting in a stroller,” she explained on a sunny afternoon after spending the morning at the barn. Although the rest of her family is racehorse-oriented (her father, Andrew Motion buys thoroughbred weanlings to train and sell later, and her uncle, Graham, is one of the world’s top thoroughbred trainers), Lillibet focuses on show-jumping, riding hunter/jumpers. She trains with local Grand Prix rider Sloane Coles and also owns two horses, both in retirement at her father’s farm in Bluemont.
Twelve years ago, Lillibet, now 24, was in the seventh grade at The Hill School when her mother, Patty, passed away from breast cancer. During high school at Foxcroft, she supported the local Cherry Blossom walk to raise money used to fund breast cancer research. Because of her rigorous riding schedule, she was never able to participate in the walk held yearly in early May until this year.
Knee surgery this past December left her still unable to ride, but in decent enough condition to participate in the walk. She started training for the walk in February and “I did a lot of hiking at Sky Meadows and a lot of walking on the dirt roads around my house. It was great physical therapy for my knee.”
She joined a team with her friend, Martina, called “Hoofing it for Healthy Hooters,” composed of people from up and down the East Coast and raised $3,473, nearly twice of what was required in order for her to participate in the walk. She received most of her support through friends, family, social media and fundraiser events.
On the first weekend in May, along with over 1,900 other participants, she walked through the city of Washington for a total of 39.3 miles, including an impressive 26.2 miles the first day. “I felt great emotionally,” she said. “Physically it was pretty rough, but it was an amazing, uplifting experience.”
Why Avon 39? The first day walk is the marathon distance. The 13.1 mile second day is a half-marathon. An overnight campsite is set up for all participants.
Motion said she hopes to participate in the walk again next year. With another two months left before she’s allowed to ride, she’ll soon go on a road trip with her
dog across the country and back to visit friends and see the rest of the country. Her goal is eventually to go to Europe as an FEI (Fédération Equestre Internatio- nale) groom. With all that’s going on, she’s still making a big effort to participate in the walk and help the cause.
Avon 39 takes place in seven cities across the U.S. and the funds raised will help put food on the table of a breast cancer patient and her family, enable access to mammograms and medicine, and fuel critical research. This funding has enabled more than 18 million women globally to receive free mammograms and breast cancer screenings, educated more than 145 million women about breast cancer, and funded promising research into the causes of breast cancer and ways to prevent the disease.
In order to participate in the walk, each individual must pledge to raise at least $1,800. All of the money collected will be donated to the general effort to destroy breast cancer including patient care, medicine, and general research. The Avon 39 organization supports many dif- ferent universities, hospitals, and research centers to accelerate breast cancer research and ultimately conquer it.
In the 2016 D.C. walk, $4.8 million dollars was raised. And since the Avon Breast Cancer Crusade began sponsoring the walks in 2003, $550 million has been raised and contributed to a wide variety of breast cancer organizations.