Monday, June 8, 2009

06.08.09: Giving Blood Cancers the Boot for My Birthday

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Every time my birthday comes around, I find some time to hike. It's a tradition I started when turned 31, after I lost about 100 pounds and returned to and conquered Camel's Hump, a Vermont mountain that had left me winded and ashamed years before. Hiking is my way of celebrating life.

This year as I was about to turn 35, I took on a very special outdoors challenge: The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Shenandoah Hike. I chose this event in honor of my friend Jen's battle with Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

An estimated 138,530 people in the United States were diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma or myeloma in 2008. Jen, who has a son just about the same age as my daughter (16 months old now!), learned she was sick when she felt a lump in her neck on Halloween 2008.

Jen's body is doing the healing. I did the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's fund raising Shenandoah hike. You can make a difference right now in the battle against blood cancers by making a donation the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society:

http://pages.teamintraining.org/nnj/shenhke09/kwhitely

A $500 donation could provide treatment to a patient. A $100 donation could mean transportation to treatments for someone without a ride. A $75 donation could provide bone marrow testing. A $50 donation could give provide resources and information to someon who just got a devastating diagnosis. Every dollar of your tax-deductible donation makes a difference.

So please help me celebrate life and give Blood Cancer the boot by making a donation on behalf of my effort. The easiest way to do so is online at, http://pages.teamintraining.org/nnj/shenhke09/kwhitely

Thank you, as always, for your support. I wish you good health and happiness in the year ahead.

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