For those of you that don't know, I lost my dad to cancer in January 2005 - 14 years ago. I was 8 at the time. March of that year was the first time I participated in St. Baldrick's and I have ever since.
If you've known me for a while then you already know what that is, but if you only recently met me and don't know, St. Baldrick's is an organization where you raise money to find a cure for childhood cancer and then shave your head to stand in solidarity with the kids who often lose their hair during chemotherapy.
As you can probably imagine, for a spiky-haired 8-year-old, the idea of shaving off all my hair made me nervous and there were multiple points where I considered backing out. But I knew my hair would grow back, something the children who lost theirs can unfortunately not say, and I could always wear a hat for a few weeks. While I have had many other opportunities since then, it was also the only thing 8-year-old me could think of to do to honor my dad.
I would like to ask you to help me honor him and consider donating for my 15th year participating. Here are some ways your money helps:
- $50 provides two hours of a clinical trial, often a child’s best hope for a cure
- $100 covers a student to work in a pediatric oncology research lab for one week
- $250 allows for ten hours of research to improve patient and survivor quality of life
- Since 2005, St. Baldrick’s has funded more than $258 million in research grants to find cures for kids with cancer
Since I started back in 2005, I have personally raised over $17,600. Of course I don't expect everyone to donate as much as those amounts mentioned above, but if just 10 people donate $5, that's already one clinical trial for a child.
Please try and pass this on to other family and friends to help out this cause.
Thank you.
