Mission Moment Monday: Why Charlie Brown, Why?

In 1990, Charles M. Schulz departed from the typically light hearted theme of the Peanuts specials. "Why Charlie Brown, Why?" is a story about leukemia.

Janice, a school friend of Linus feels sick one day at school and then begins to miss a lot of school. When Linus and Charlie Brown find out that Janice has leukemia, they are deeply troubled and go visit her in the hospital where they hear all about her tests and treatments.

This story touches on many aspects of childhood cancer, including fear, sibling distress, misunderstanding about cancer, insensitivity, hair loss and much more. It was nominated for an Emmy. Charles Schulz died of cancer 10 years after the film premiered. 

To view the entire movie on Youtube, click HERE.

Fundraising Friday: Blind Auction

A blind auction is a fun, creative way to raise funds. Here's how it's done...

Host a cocktail party at your house. Ask your invited guests to bring a wrapped package. The contents can be anything from something silly to something very nice and expensive. The possibilities are only limited by their imagination.

Wrap an expensive bottle of wine. Do you have an old, ugly sweater you no longer wear? Wrap it. Donors should disguise the contents of their gifts by weighing the boxes with bricks or placing small items in large boxes.

As your guests arrive, they can place their gifts on the auction table and when everything is set up, and your guests are enjoying their beverages and hors d'oeuvres, let the bidding begin.

Ask local businesses to donate items for the auction. Movie tickets, restaurant gift cards, frames, artwork, food items, etc. are all great ideas and can easily be disguised in a wrapped box. Whatever is in the gift box won't really matter in the end because it's all about the spirit of giving to a great cause.

*Alternatives to the above:

• Instead of bidding, have everyone donate $50 to choose a box. Whatever is in that box is theirs whether it's a $200 concert ticket or an old pair of sneakers.
• Instead of a silent auction, do a traditional auction and get the auctioneer to stir the crowd up on how beautiful the wrapping is so they want to bid on that item.
• Instead of a cocktail party, host a dance party or potluck dinner.
• Do the blind auction at work as part of a meeting or luncheon.
• Your auction can even be done online via social media or your personal website

Mission Moment Monday: Donna's Story

Brittany Pitlik with her beautiful nana, Donna

Donna Pitlik was what you think of when you hear the term "medical miracle". At 45 years old she was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a double mastectomy. When she hit the famous 5-year mark, the one so many breast cancer survivors long for, Donna discovered she had leukemia.

Unrelated to her original cancer, Donna's newest cancer diagnosis was a rare and interesting case. She received her treatments at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center where she participated in various drug trials, none of which had been approved by the FDA yet. Her success helped bring leukemia treatments closer to where they are today.

One of the drug trials Donna participated in was imatinib (Gleevec®) which has now dramatically improved survival rates for chronic leukemia patients.

"To know her was to love her," said Brittany Pitlik, her granddaughter. Brittany is training to participate in her very first full marathon with TNT, the BMO Vancouver Marathon on May 3. About her precious grandmother, Brittany says, "She was love and compassion and loyalty and determination and courage and attitude."

Donna was one of our Texas Gulf Coast TNT honored teammates in the late 1990's and even travelled with the Team to the Anchorage Marathon. Her teammates, her doctors, her friends and her family marvelled at her incredible strength and watched as she defied the great odds against her to live 259 months longer than she was supposed to live.

In 1993 when she was first diagnosed with cancer, doctors told her that she would survive only three months. After fighting breast cancer and leukemia, she continued living a strong, active life until March 29, 2014. The vast treatments Donna endured for many years which extended her life, ultimately caused brain atrophy in her cerebellum. But when she took her final breath, she left this life a champion, one who is greatly missed by all her knew her.

To honor this amazing lady, her granddaughter Brittany decided to tackle 26.2 miles and bravely run through the streets of Vancouver in honor of Donna. Because her "Nana" survived 259 months after her cancer diagnosis, Brittany is hoping to receive 259 donations of $100 each for a total of $25,900 in memory of Donna.

This is a big goal, but Brittany is taking on Donna's spirit of determination to conquer her goal. If you would like to help this young lady honor her Nana's memory, you may donate HERE.

Donna with Brittany, her first grandchild

Fundraising Friday: 12 Shots

On February 22, 2013 Brian Shaw (a.k.a. Little Man), then only four years old, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). The following year, his dad Lance participated in a 100-mile bike ride around Lake Tahoe, America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride, with Team In Training to raise funds for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Lance's goal was to raise $37,454.13, an amount equivalent to the average charge of a single chemotherapy injection Little Man received. He received 12 of those injections in about a two-month period. Lance's 2014 fundraising campaign was a success. In fact, he raised much more than his goal with a total of $56,310 toward the LLS mission to cure leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma and to improve the quality of life of patients and their families. That amazing journey has been consolidated into a short ebook which you can download free HERE.

This year, Lance is returning to Lake Tahoe with a team of cyclists- Eric, Paul, Mark and Nana. Together, they will continue the fundraising effort with an ever greater goal. This year, the goal is to raise an amount equivalent to the balance of those 12 shots Brian received: $393,193.56. That's where their team name, 12 Shots, came from.

Their team website will be active all season long. There, you can keep up with the many adventures of Little Man, the misadventures of Team 12 Shots, and meet some of the people who have helped save and improve Little Man's life over the past two years. You'll also be able to link to individual team member websites for additional material. Check out 12 Shots HERE.

You can also follow the team on FACEBOOK and view Lance's speech at last year's inspiration dinner HERE.

Brian (AKA Little Man) looks like he's
ready to ride 100 miles just like his daddy!

Throwback Thursday: Cancer Treatments of the Past

Patient receiving radiation therapy. Photographer unknown.
From G. Terry Sharrer, Ph.D. National Museum of American History.

If you heard the news you had cancer before the 1950s, you knew your life was over. It was extremely rare in those days for someone to be diagnosed with any kind of cancer and think "I'll beat this".

Before the 50s, the most common treatment options for cancer were radiation therapy and surgery. Then, during World War II, military personnel were exposed to mustard gas and were later found to have major toxic changes in their bone marrow. Their white blood cell counts were extremely low when exposed to the gas.

It was believed that an agent that could damage rapidly growing white blood cells might have a similar effect on cancer. So, in the late 1940s, patients with advanced lymphomas were given the gas by vein. Not long after this, nitrogen mustard was used in children with acute leukemias and it began to produce remissions. This drug was the predecessor of methorexate, a chemo agent still in use today. The 1950's is considered the era of chemotherapy and researchers were heavily funded by the Leukemia Society of America (now called the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society). You can read more about LLS funding over the years HERE.

Someday, we hope to look back at the year 2015 and say "Wow, remember when people had cancer? So glad that's something of the past." Thank you to all our TNT participants and donors who are making someday TODAY!

Wacky Wednesday: Costume Running

There is absolutely nothing wrong with taking running seriously. It is a highly competitive sport with elite athletes competing for multiple thousands of dollars worth of prizes. So, to all the top, serious runners out there, we tip our hat to you!

Now, on to something fun...
COSTUME RUNNING!

If you've never tried running a race in costume, you ought to sometime. But, if you do decide to run a race in costume, here are a few essentials:

1. Practice first. Whether you choose a simple tutu and wig or go all out wearing a head to toe gorilla costume, practice running in that thing before race day.
2. Expect challenges. Most costumes are not made of high quality wicking material designed for heavy breathing and excessive sweating. In fact, you are likely to sweat much more depending on your costume. If you wear a mask, it might be hard to breathe! So, go into it expecting it to be a little more challenging and take it slow and easy, not expecting a personal best.
3. Make sure you can see! If you choose to wear a mask, make sure you don't have blind spots. You don't want to fall and you definitely don't want to trip another runner.
4. You'll have many fans! Take advantage of all the cheers and get the crowds all stirred up even more. They are going to love you. High five the kids. Be enthusiastic as you run because everyone is going to cheer louder for you than normal. You also might have spectators ask if they can get a photo with you, so just scoot over and enjoy the feeling of being a celebrity.
5. Have fun!

Check out some of these costumes seen in races. Maybe they will inspire you!

Mission Moment Monday: Dr. Helen Heslop

Our mission at the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society includes curing leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. It is with great pride and honor that we fund researchers across the country including many great researchers right here in Houston, Texas.

Dr. Helen Heslop is one of the Texas researchers being funded by the LLS. She and her team work out of Baylor College of Medicine and they are the recipient of an LLS SCOR (Specialized Center of Research) grant of $6 million through 2018. Dr. Heslop is the director for Center Cell and Gene Therapy  at Texas Children's Hospital as well as director of Adult Bone Marrow and Stem Cell Transplant Program at BCM.

With her team, Dr. Heslop is using the LLS funds to continue research on mobilizing the immune system to control cancers of the blood. The team has successfully worked to create safer, simpler immunotherapies for two different types of blood cancer - acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and multiple myeloma. Not only are they researching methods in which immunotherapies will provide better results in a safer manner, but they are also working toward achieving reduced costs of treatments to make them more accessible to patients.