Another year has past and it is time for the annual Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Light the Night fundraiser. This will be my fourth time walking and I just praise God I am still physically able to participate. Last year it was held in Austin at the new Dell Children's Hospital at the old airport grounds. It will be there again this year. We preferred it out here in Round Rock, walking around the Dell Diamond baseball stadium, but I have to admit, there were a LOT more participants down there and a lot more money was raised for research and support of blood cancer patients. The local LLS does a good job and is very active. They hold patient education seminars, provide financial assistance for those who apply and of course support research through the national HQ.
I haven't added it up officially, but my family and I raised about $8,000 in the last three walks. Last year I was VERY late getting my site up and I only gave myself a week before the walk. Yet family and friends came through with a total of over $1,600 in a week's time!
This year, as always, I will be walking in memory of my dad and all the wonderful friends I made who have now died from leukemia and lymphoma. There have been many who died just this year whom I came to know (or their loved one) on the CLL forum or the CLL Christian Friends sites. My family walks in honor of me and memory of Dad/Grandpa.
It really is an emotional sight to see all the balloons on that evening. Red ones are carried by those who are walking in memory or support of someone and white balloons are carried by survivors of blood cancer. Some walks around the country use Gold for those walking in memory, but our chapter hasn't started that yet.
The hardest sight is seeing the little kids who are bald because they are currently going through chemo. But, they always have a big smile. I remember last year seeing a little girl who was probably three or four. She was totally bald, had dark shadows under her eyes, but was dancing energetically to the band that was playing and she was clapping and laughing joyously. What a spirit. Sometimes there are children or adults in wheelchairs who are currently going through chemotherapy. Be we are all united in wanting to find a cure.
If you are reading this and feel led, I would appreciate your support. I know many of my readers also do the walk in their local communities around the country. It is pretty easy to give on line by logging into my site and then going over to the right side of the page and scroll down and click on any amount or click other and type in whatever you like. There is nothing too small to help. Then click the red donate button and follow the directions. If you prefer to mail a check, send me an email and I will give you my address. My email is jtw890 at aol dot com. (Of course use @ in place of at and . in place of dot and all with no spaces. I do that to stop the auto spammers.) Everyone's dollars add up and there is power in numbers. My page is:
I believe God is using researchers in many places to come up with new and better treatments and they will eventually find a cure. However research takes lots of money and this is one way of supporting that research. There are treatments available to me, that were not available to my dad and new discoveries are made on a regular basis.
If you are not able to help, that is OK too. You can support me and my family with your continued words of encouragement and of course your prayers which mean so much to us.
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