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This year, some 44,000 adults and 4,200 children are expected to develop some form of Leukemia.

To me those are pretty staggering numbers.

Please join me, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and its mission to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families by “Blogging for Blood Cancer”. The first annual “Blogging for Blood Cancer” event will take place from August 11-18, 2008. This first time event will bring bloggers from across the United States together to raise awareness of these diseases and the need for researching a cure.

The event is being hosted by Goodies for Mom in conjunction with the Friends of Heroes (FOH) National Light The Night Team. We are asking (ok ,begging) that bloggers post on your blogs throughout the event about the importance of the LLS mission, share your personal stories of those you have come to know who have been affected by blood cancer, or share some of the stories you read here and on the FOH site during the week that have touched your hearts.

All bloggers participating will have the opportunity to be entered to win prizes donated by event sponsors by leaving a Mr. Linky link on the Goodies for Mom post for the event. The event post will go up on August 11, 2008 at 8:00am. Even if you do not have a blog, visitors to the Goodies for Mom and Friends of Heroes blogs during the week will also have opportunities to win as they learn more about the importance of LLS’s research and patient services in the fight against blood cancer.

My sister has suffered with Leukemia for the past twenty five years. She is in remission, but still takes massive doses of expensive drugs every day to keep her cancer in remission. She does not live a normal life despite her cancer being in remission. She rarely goes out as she is very succeptible to catching disease from other people — diseases as simple as a common cold will blow up into life threatening pneumonia because her immune system is compromised so much with this disease. She lives on disability, her retirement from the company she worked for and Social Security. Thankfully her insurance carried over into retirement, so the drugs are at least partially covered, but she still has a large out-of-pocket expense as one drug alone costs some $10,000 per MONTH.

Finding a cure for this disease would benefit her and the millions of others who have this or other blood cancers. Won’t you help them find a cure by donating whatever you can to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society?

Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

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