Shelagh

[Guest guest]

Dear Shelagh,

You are glad you found us, but more appropriately, we are grateful that you

chose us. We can always use a good laugh and you are full of those. Yes, there

are many successful stories, but we only know about them if people are willing

to open up and tell us their histories. Here are a few and the names may be

familiar to you. Bobby and I are old timers, but there are a few who come near

our longevity tabulations in the great book of life. Has no one ever heard of

Skip Duffie, outside of our group, whose ancestors come from around the Tain

region of Scotland? Found out he and Jimmy's family are both from Clan Ross, so

they all drank that Scotch from the same trough. LOL Skip is now in his 34th

year, near as the doctors can figure out, anyway. Now he should be in the

Guiness Book of World Records, should he not? The second Metheuslah.

If you are afraid of monstors, stay away from Loch Ness, but the Scotch around

there abounds. LOL

Our Skip does not think he is anyone special, but we all consider him our Rock

Star. He could show us all how to live. He's very shy about calling attention

to himself, but now and again he pops in with something about how he has lived

with CML, even with his poetry. Everyone has a caregiver that should be

acknowledged and I give my appreciation to my husband, Jimmy. Skip's wife is

Kim and she is Skip's guardian angel. Zavie's wife is Ida and she frets over

him and works alongside him in serving food for the homeless and other

charitable organizations. We know Zavie for his yipees and s and his zero

numbers that have a special meaning to our group. Now I have named 3 caregivers

who have fought long and hard next to their partners, gone with them and held

the hands of their mates when they received the bad news and getting those

BMA's. If you would like to give tribute to your caregiver, just buzz me and I

will be happy to mention their names and introduce them to the group. Now we

have some BMT patients who would probably like to give them a salute and hail

their caregivers, too. To them go the medals for riding sidesaddle through the

process and special needs. In toto, we have a lot of brave people here, some

long term, others short term, but all warriors in this war against CML. We all

win in the long run, ready to dig in for a longer life than was predicted at

first. We should have a smiley face as our mascot. LOL

We have a community of people who knock themselves out of the ball park, raising

awareness, speaking before congress and other groups, also raising money for

research or raising money themselves in various ways, hoping it gets the

research for a cure to a much higher level than has already been expressed in

the past. We are moving forward and as we all know, it takes a lot of money.

Bravo to our Team, Run For The Money. Don't let the flame go out.

Carpe Diem,

Lottie Duthu