Let’s kick cancer in
the nuts!
Current donation total: $395
There
were those of you who wanted to know more about my friend’s condition,
so with their permission, I’m posting the letter that I received the
other day.
“Levina”
April 14, 2006
11:28:35 PM GMT+03:00
(& Mike)
participating in the Relay for Life at UCI (April 29-30) with my class
because there are people dear to me who have survived cancer
and is
currently fighting cancer. One person who was just
recently diagnosed
with cancer is my boyfriend. Early last month, Mike was
diagnosed with
mediastinal cancer, a yolk cell carcinoma in his chest between his
lungs. Since the cancer is rare, aggressive, and has a
statistical
survival rate of 50-60%, he is undergoing one of the strongest
chemotherapy treatments at USC’s Norris Cancer Hospital.
Surgery is
not a possibilty right now because the
tumor was the size of a football
when it was first found and affected vital structures like his
lung and
vessels of his heart. He has had 2 blood
transfusions and just
finished his third round of chemo. So far,
the chemo is working
because the tumor blood markers decreased from 37,000 to 11,000 and
again to 5,000 (normal level is supposed to be 0) so he will
continue
to undergo treatment until the levels become
negligible if all goes
well. I’m hopeful that he will be one of the successful
cases. I don’t
usually feel comfortable reaching out to people but I want to
help by
spreading the awareness of the prevalence of cancer and the need for
support. By participating or
donating to the American Cancer
Society via Relay for Life, you honor cancer
survivors, people we have
lost to cancer, and people who are fighting
cancer. I donated in
support of Mike but you can donate or walk for anyone you care
about too. I appreciate any amount that you
give. Please send the
link to others you think might want to donate. Thanks!
PS
Here is a website with more information about mediastinal
cancer. You
can click on the personal stories link at the bottom of the
webpage to
read patient’s stories about their experiences.
More
Today, I thought it
would be appropriate to put a face and story to the friend that I keep
talking about so dearly.
I met him about three or
four years ago at a community service project, in fact, one of the best
ones that I’ve ever been to [anyone remember the two day saddleback
marathon?].
.. There are so many things I want to
say, and yet none of the words that come from my fingertips seem to
correctly express the vibrant, fun, and amazing person he is… So
today I’m going to have to settle with
pictures.
Fun,
silly, happy, and always smiling. I’m proud to have you as my friend.
For those of you who believe praying works — I’d appreciate it if you’d do it for him =] Thanks.
Help
me pwn
cancer from behind:
Donate, or post this link on your
blog.
Life
You don’t need paypal to donate to the site
above. Just a credit
card.
If you haven’t already donated, you can also donate at the
link above or below at the same link as
before:
If you
donate through paypal, I can recognize you through my
site.
Contributors
Kenneth
Fulkerson
Ameer Navidi
ken hashimawari
Jimmy Nguyen
Steven Tsang
Lawrence
Ha
Erin Gee
Maria
Yesayan
Michael
Chiu
Falan
Thanks !
