Raising money for CML

[Guest guest]

Dear Skip,

Thank you, but I don't expect praise, I do the research and just share it with

the group. I'm not a professional, but I think my instincts lead me through the

various experiences I and others have had that will help others. The articles

keep us up to date and give us hope. I can't go out and raise money, but I do

what I can in our own group.

Virginia has had CML for years, but every year she goes out and raises a lot of

money through contributions from people who are willing to shell it out when

they have their annual fund raisers. She and others like her are our unsung

heroes, they are on the front lines. Her name is on my mind because I have

written to her on several occasions and thereby know what LLS is doing where she

lives in CA. I know there are others around the country and there is Sue in AU

who just doesn't know when to stop, she is so involved in raising money by

getting the whole community involved. Bingo, bango, another unsung hero. If

you know of anyone or if you are a fundraiser, let us know what you or your

community is doing, and you may spark an idea that someone is waiting to hear -

something that they can do.

Zavie is a big part of our CML community and has helped a lot of people get on

the right track by getting them to see the right doctors and walking them

through, so you are right on target there, Skip. I can't mention everything he

does, because he doesn't want me to talk about it here. One of our members saw

something I had posted and she took her break to email her thoughts and thanks

to Zavie from her Blackberry. As Skip says, we are not rock stars or hockey

players (a really big thing in Canada), but anything is better than nothing and

ten posts are better than one, and it goes on. Each one is a part of the

puzzle. I see puzzles all of the time on window sills at MDACC that someone has

taken the time to make and in the middle there is a piece left out, so it is

incomplete. I think sometimes maybe I am the person who can be that missing

link. To have a good neighbor, you must be one yourself, my mother used to tell

me. She must have been a good neighbor, because when she died, every neighbor

we ever had was at her funeral. She never had a name - in the true sense of

course she did, but she didn't have her own identity is a better word. She was

called by my father's name, " go get Ms. Levy " , because she had so much presence

of mind, she always knew what to do and helped everyone. " Help thy neighbor as

thy help thyself. "

Carpe Diem,

Lottie Duthu