Thursday, September 18, 2008

Another success!!!

I held my second fundraising events on September 13 and again not knowing what to expect and trying to avoid expectations, I was blown away! This fundraiser was held at the WildFire located in Langdon and raised $7,570. Again the showing of support and generosity was phenomenal. I'd like to thank Sammy and the wildfire for hosting the event and for all the donations he kicked in. I was amazed at the amount of auction items that were donated and just like last time things all came together in the final stretch. There are so many people to thank but for this blog I'll cover it all with one broad stroke. A huge thank you to everyone who donated auction items and to everyone who showed up at the fundraiser. I had a really good time as I'm sure everyone there did as well.

With some other donations that I recently received my total now stands at $39,970!! I figure I will need another $4,000 to $5,000 to cover all expenses which is minor when you take the whole picture into account. Going to China for treatment was something I had to do for myself even though I knew I could not pay for it myself. Having never done fundraising like this before I'm thrilled with how everything turned out! In two weeks from today I will be boarding a plane to begin my quest.

I can't thank everyone enough who has contributed to my cause! This is not just in terms of money donated but for the moral support and encouragement and most of all for everyone's prayers! Please continue to pray for me and my sister as we embark on this journey of Hope.

LC

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Ready to go…

Well time sure does go by fast, it seems like just yesterday that I was setting up my website and beginning my campaign. Now summer is over, kids are back in school and in less than a month I’ll be leaving for China. I made my final payment to Beike Biotechnology yesterday and our flight reservations are all confirmed. I leave Calgary on October 2nd and arrive in Hangzhou October 5th and enter the hospital that day.

People ask me if I’m getting nervous but I’m more excited than anything. I know October 2nd will be here in no time meaning I have very little time to raise additional funds. So far my total is $28,500 which is awesome but not quite enough. I am having another fund raiser September 13th at the Wildfire located in Langdon. There will be another silent auction and hopefully a great turnout. I don’t think I’ll raise as much as my first fundraiser but hopefully I can hit $4,500 to pay down what I’ve put on my credit card so far. I know I’ll still have many thousands in expenses to come. At least I’ve paid for the hospital and treatments because that has always been a bit of an uncertainty since it had to be in US funds. Fortunately our Canadian dollar has been up and even above par but of course it fluctuates daily. I’ve been exchanging currencies as I’ve had it and watched the dollar carefully. I was able to exchange $6,000 at an even rate but not as lucky on the rest. It cost me almost $1,900 in Canadian dollars to pay Beike in US dollars.

In other news, it looks like I’ll be getting additional media coverage from CTV. They are running a follow up story to a bone marrow transplant story they aired last year. In doing some background research one of the associates from W-Five came across my blog and emailed me. I should be doing my first interview September 18th or 19th and then they will follow my progress and treatment in China. CTV will be setting my sister up with a camera for shooting while in the hospital so this is all very exciting! The W-Five episode will not air until I return from China but may be beneficial if I still need to raise funds to pay off loans and debts from the trip. I think it will run as an hour long program with the last half hour dedicated to my story. I will be posting information when this is going to happen.

Hopefully there will still be people reading my blog! I will be posting progress updates while I’m in China on a regular basis so stay tuned.

LC