I am not sure if people followed my posts from over the years, but i am cancer survivor and extremely lucky to be alive today. If I learned anything from having cancer it is that: Life is too short to not be a friendly person, life is too short to not understand others, and life is too short to not live.
September is blood cancer awareness month (I had stage 3B lymphoma). There are an estimated 731,277 people living with, or in remission from, lymphoma, 310,046 people living with, or in remission from, leukemia, and another 88,490 people living with, or in remission from, myeloma. This is in the US alone.
I found out tonight that one of my best friends cousins died this morning from leukemia and I have another 2 friends in chemotherapy (one with lymphoma and another with a extremely aggressive form of leukemia). This is a extremely personal fight for me.
While we are lucky that the survival rate has almost doubled in the last 50 years, but that is not enough. We still are unsure of why people get these awful diseases and are actively looking not to treat, but to cure and prevent.
Cancer has changed the lives of so many people that I know, and while it is a awful thing, it does make us appreciate everyday just a little bit more. Life is what you make of it, despite when it seems like it cannot go on much further. For all of us that are here today and those of us that lost a valiant fight, I encourage you to research, learn, and possibly donate to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
The Lymphoma and Leukemia Society is trying to raise $300,000 this month for research. This does not seem hard for them to reach and I would love to say that I was able to organize at least a small portion of that. I am currently organizing various charity events this month around Sugarhouse SLC (if you are in the area feel free to hit me up to get the details on various bbq's and various fun things I am doing) to raise money. On top of these efforts, I am also personally donating 50% of what I make this month from work to fund this research.
If you don't feel like donating that is completely okay, I would just hope that you check out their page and learn about these cancers. I did not know anything about them until it was too late. My battle with cancer could have been much easier if I had known and related the symptoms earlier.
As I never want this happening to anyone else, consider donating here: http://www.lls.org/
We all did the ice bucket challenge and I think we can do this too. If you do donate, please send me a inbox or post the amount so I can keep track.
So NS what do you say, care to help fellow a family member out?
During treatment:
When things got really bad:
First day back last November!
