To all Bill's fans - help fight Childhood Cancer

[lukesquared]

Signed it!

[ajflutie]

come on boys.......sign in please

 

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/CureChildhoodCancer

[SirPorl]

Just wanted to say that I signed the petition. Not really good at this but I am deeply sorry to hear of your loss.

 

 

Sirporl

 

AKA - Mikey

[Golden Wheels]

I was very sad to hear that AJ's fight against cancer had ended. But it isn't over for the rest of us. I signed the petition, and emailed friends about it.

 

Take a minute and sign it please.

[buffaloboyinATL]

Signed. God bless!

[Astrobot]

I've signed it. You have my prayers and kudos to you for getting this going.

Nobody should have to bear this burden.

A toast to you...

[Nick in RaChaCha]

Signed it...

 

I'm sorry for your loss.

 

Note to Mira - I miss you. I wish you were here. I tell myself that you are in a place where you no-longer have cancer, and that you are running and playing... Your family loves you always.

 

If tears were research we would have a cure by now.

 

 

Nick

[Lori]

Hey, if any of you want to put some money toward a good GREAT cause, WGR's Jeremy White will be participating in Chip In for Carly's Club 2008 on Monday, June 16. I'm in -- if he can make it through 100 holes of golf in one day, I guess I can toss a few bucks his way, no?

 

For those of you who may not be familiar with Carly's Club, here's the description from their United Way page: "Carly’s Club for Kids & Cancer Research at Roswell Park Cancer Institute exists to offer support programs to make life more manageable for children diagnosed with cancer and their families, and to raise funds for pediatric cancer research seeking cures at Roswell Park Cancer Institute."

 

And before anybody tries to hijack this into a WGR rant, this isn't about them. It's about helping kids with cancer. Here's Jeremy's page, or you can hit the main link above to see who else is signed up to play.

 

Oh, and sign Bob's petition while you're here, too. Thanks.

[SDS]

Hey, if any of you want to put some money toward a good GREAT cause, WGR's Jeremy White will be participating in Chip In for Carly's Club 2008 on Monday, June 16. I'm in -- if he can make it through 100 holes of golf in one day, I guess I can toss a few bucks his way, no?

 

For those of you who may not be familiar with Carly's Club, here's the description from their United Way page: "Carly’s Club for Kids & Cancer Research at Roswell Park Cancer Institute exists to offer support programs to make life more manageable for children diagnosed with cancer and their families, and to raise funds for pediatric cancer research seeking cures at Roswell Park Cancer Institute."

 

And before anybody tries to hijack this into a WGR rant, this isn't about them. It's about helping kids with cancer. Here's Jeremy's page, or you can hit the main link above to see who else is signed up to play.

 

Oh, and sign Bob's petition while you're here, too. Thanks.

 

 

$50 donated from TBD in memory of AJ. I also provided a link to this thread in hope you can get more signatures (although I'm not sure if that was tacky or not). If so, I can ask them to remove it. Regardless, the sentiment is genuine.

[ajflutie]

That is so thoughtful and appreciated. Thank you.

 

AJs Dad

[Spiderweb]

Signed, with with great sympathy to you and your family.

 

This issue is near and dear to my heart, as my son John was diagnosed with Leukemia when he was 2 years old. He is now 9 years old and doing well, yet I still live in fear everyday of this disease. It's not something I can easily talk about without breaking down. Yet, I'm ever so grateful to God and his Doctor for all they did to allow him to remain with us. Every day we get is a blessing that we (especially myself) easily lose sight of.

[ajflutie]

This topic has 2000 views, yet I don't believe that 2000 signed the petition. I am curious as to why you would NOT sign it? What's it about? OK, here,

 

You know for the last two years, my right shoulder has really ached. I called it my torn rotor cuff. It came from throwing tens of thousands footballs to my 14 year old son, Alex John, or as we called him, AJ. Trying to lead him just right on deep post patterns, trying hard to keep up with his speed. And, on the last one every time, it could only end after he made a great catch, from catching the big lug and hugging him as he came jumping into my arms, yelling "the Bills win the Super Bowl, the Bills win the Super Bowl". Us dreaming. It came from trying to pitch to him as fast as I could so he wouldn't hit me, but he always did. It honestly hurt enough so that I only slept on my left side and if I rolled over on it, it would wake me up in the night. But I didn't care, how could I stop doing those things?

 

My new problem is that over the past two months, my shoulder has slowly but surely stopped aching. Now what keeps me awake at night is my broken heart. You see, I have no one to throw those passes to, no one to brush back anymore. Because AJ left us on January 5, 2008, a victim of childhood cancer.

 

AJ truly was a remarkable young man. He was born during a blizzard in March 1993, and to this day I remember him not crying and breathing right after being born, and the doctor and nurses rushing around in the delivery room. But after he took that first breath, boy did he breath deep the rest of his life. He lived life, loved sports. He was always smiling. He loved people, music, playing the guitar, animals, movies, good books. He thought. He had fun; always made people laugh, did the right things, did everything at 110%, and was simply just a joy to be around. He was the love of our lives, and is forever my best friend. During the last few months as we would be alone in the hospital room together at night, and at home under hospice, I came to know that, he was truly the most evolved person I have ever known. Jimmy V would be proud of the way AJ lived.

 

And in his time here on earth, he impacted many people. Teachers, doctors, star athletes. He moved the Make-a-Wish people. After several attempts to get to Colorado to go skiing, we just couldn't do it, he was too sick. So one day, he knew the situation, he says to me out of the blue, Dad, do you think Mom and Sis like earrings or bracelets. He changed his make a wish to diamond earrings for Mom and Sis. They didn't know. The earrings arrived the day after he died. Just like AJ, they sparkle every day. Not too bad for a 14 year old eh?

 

He impacted visitors to the hospital. AJ and Stuart Holden from the Houston Dynamo soccer club struck up a friendship. Stuart visited all the kids on the floor every chance they could. AJ would light up and trash talk with him about sports and just forget and imagine at once. Forget where he was and imagine himself back out there on the playing field. Somehow he touched Stuart. Stuart, a member of the 2007 Champion Houston Dynamo soccer team, came to visit AJ our last day at the hospital. He brought the big silver MLS Championship Cup. And his gold medal. He and AJ held the cup high and kissed it. AJ told me he always knew he would hold one, and Stuart made that dream come true. Then Stuart took his gold medal, his World Series and Super Bowl ring, and placed it around AJ's neck and said, "I want you to have this". AJ made me so proud, again, and said, "I can't accept this Stuart". Stuart insisted. Such a selfless act. That's the kind of people you run into in these places.

 

I don't know if you have even been on the pediatric cancer floor. I hope not. If you have ever walked the halls and seen the smiles or tears on the faces of these little fighters as they play on the little trikes and bikes. How the moms and dads race behind them with the ever present IV pole. How they have little child sized masks on because they are at risk of infection. How the teens hang together and still try to act cool, even though they are bald and ready to throw up at any time. How the teens use words like methotrexate and acronyms like ANC instead of "sweet" and LOL. How the poor little baby's cry because they can't even relate what hurts. Or if you've ever seen a mom or dad alone in the break room at 3 am, with their head in their hands, feeling alone, helpless, scared and mad. I don't know if you've ever visited a Care Page or a Caring Page site, kind of like blogs where we tell our kid's stories. I've seen it all and more. In December 2007 I had my 14 year old son ask me "Dad, what's hospice". I have seen enough.

 

So, that's why I am here today. I want every other Dad's shoulders to ache their whole lives. I want every other Mom's to worry about where their kids are up to, not about tomorrow's chemo regime. I want this to totally stop. Here are the facts:

 

· Childhood cancer is the #1 killer disease of our children, more than from asthma, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, congenital anomalies, and pediatric AIDS combined

 

· 1 in 300 children will be diagnosed with cancer before age 20, about 12,500 every year. Year after year.

 

· Each year 3,000 children die, and 35-40,000 are in treatment

 

· Only 3% of all cancer research money goes to childhood cancer. A bill in Congress will provide $30 million per year to fund research for childhood cancer. For comparison, that amount currently funds 2 hours of the war overseas. So our war against childhood cancer is vastly under-publicized and under-funded

 

· According to the 2005 National Academy of Sciences report "From the point of view of companies developing drugs and other agents to treat cancer, the pediatric cancer drug market is often well below the radar screen, and typically it has not made business sense to invest in research and development for these cancers. But in fact, the biological and clinical characteristics of nearly all childhood cancers differ substantially from adult cancers.......Cutting-edge science notwithstanding, market forces are not sufficient to drive the process and bring to the bedside new drugs for children with cancer."

 

To honor AJ and the thousands of other kids, I started a grassroots campaign to collect 1,000,000 signatures on a petition. The petition is simple.

 

OBJECTIVE #1 - RAISE AWARENESS

· Deliver reams of 1,000,000 printed signatures via FedX to ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and Fox and challenge every prime time, investigative or news media to produce an hour long special devoted specifically to childhood cancer.

 

· The network show will RAISE AWARENESS OF THE PROBLEM and show how special these kids are. Show how they face fear, pain, boredom and the unknown, many times for years on end. They may live or die, yet each will forever impact those around them in ways beyond their years.

 

 

 

OBJECTIVE #2 - RAISE FUNDING FOR A CURE

 

· To raise funding we will publish and promote a book telling the heartwarming, heartbreaking and incredible stories of these kids. Each child's story telling how they taught us lessons beyond their years, lessons they should not even have to know yet.

 

· All proceeds for the book will go directly to CureSearch, the largest childhood cancer research organization charged with a goal of finding a cure. CureSearch members treat 90% of the cases nationwide.

 

 

You can make a difference. You can help. Please sign at:

CureChildhoodCancer

 

I feel bad pointing this out but, who knows, with 1 in 300 kids diagnosed with cancer, it might be your kid, niece, nephew or grandkid you help save. AJ's favorite line from his favorite song was "you get what you give". Please give.

 

AJ's Dad

[jarthur31]

I'm not trying to usurp this thread but this is a cause close to my heart. I donate every year to this charity:

 

http://www.hmc.psu.edu/fourdiamonds/

 

Read and become active because these kids can't fight the battle alone.