Season of Giving

If you are looking to give to a charity close to your heart or close to the heart of someone you care for, I urge you to think of me, of my father and of the millions of others who have been or will be touched by Mesothelioma.

In the next month and a half I am hoping to raise the final portion of my father’s fundraising goal of $100,000. I know it seems daunting, but I am only $2856.64 shy of meeting that final number. I know it can be done.

With your help we can continue his legacy, his passion, to find a cure. It is needed now more than ever.

On November 13th, 2012 ADAO released a statement and video confirming that workers in Houston, TX were exposed to asbestos while repairing the city’s water mains. These workers were not warned of the potential hazards of their job on that day back in 2011.

If only you knew the pain of watching someone die of this horrible, preventible disease. For those who don’t know, I am so happy for you. For those who do, I know your pain. The deterioration of the person you love, the withering away of a once strong & amazing individual, the hopes and dreams of the things they’ll never see again … can break even the toughest of hearts.

For those of you still reading, I’m sure you remember the New York City sky the day of the attack on September 11th, 2001. You can see the planes in the rewind of your mind, the people and the papers flying down to the earth. Do you also remember that crazy, greyish cloud people closest to the attack walked through, breathed in, and tread on? Asbestos was in so much of those structures that came tumbling down,  more than 1,000 tons of it was released into the world that day. Can you even imagine how the city’s 1st responders are doing now? I’ll tell you that not everyone is doing all that well. CNN reported a Bill was created offering 1st Responders federal medical coverage for 58 different types of cancer. CNN also reported the story of how a 9/11 Detective Dies After Battle With Lung Cancer.

It is absolutely staggering to think of how people are effected by asbestos and that it is not fully banned. It was once the ‘miracle mineral‘, but it’s effects have been far less than miraculous!

Again, I hope you will join me in giving to my father’s last charity, the Mesothelioma Foundation. Through the funding of research, trials and education there may be a cure. As my father used to write, Believe in Yourself, Believe in a Cure.