For the past seven years, Denise Becker of Lansing and her daughters, Jessica Verdon and Jennifer Becker, have run in the annual Chicago Rock and Roll Half-Marathon, which took place Sunday, July 17 this year. In addition to Sunday’s half-marathon, they also ran a 5K race the previous day, Saturday July, 16.
Every year Becker and her daughters run in the event to raise awareness of how Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) affect returning service members, helping to spread the message of “if we send them, we must mend them." Becker cites that, on average, 22 veterans take their own lives on a daily basis due to PTSD/TBI.