Friday, October 27, 2006

It's hard to know what to say anymore. I'm now in the follow-up stages of this aweful disease. Mamo's, MRI's set for Nov. Had bonescan in Oct. Had CT scan just before that. I am so thankful that I made it through, and I am doing well. Now I want to help those continuing to fight. I may have mentioned this before, (chemo-brain, bear with me), I want to start a non-profit to help mom's in our community who are going through cancer treatments either by organizing meals, cleaning bathrooms, babysitting, etc. I have a friend who is also interested and the two of us will be brainstorming to get it off the ground.

I understand that there are all kinds of fundraisers out there to cure cancer, but I want to help the women here today who are in the trenches of this disease, managing everyday life. That's where friends and family come in, but take it from me, it is hard for someone going through this to ask for help, and sometimes, there is no one to ask, and people don't know what to do or when to step in. I am hoping to start an organization to facilitate help for women going through this. Women in particular since they are usually the primary caregivers to their families, take care of the children, household, dinners, driving, working, etc. The spouse must continue working to help pay hospital costs, to keep medical insurance, and must manage extra duties that his wife cannot during treatments. It adds to the stress of the situation. If I had an organization that could do their laundry once a week, provide a meal or two a week and clean their bathrooms during their treatments, find a babysitter to get the kids off the bus, just to be a blessing in the middle of the storm. You come to realize how much the little things mean when you go through this. You can't take time off from being a mom, even when you are going through cancer treatments.

Anyone have any ideas what to call this new non-profit? Mother's Helper? Mom's Blessings? Get creative and let me know what you think. I'm sure when we get this off the ground we will be doing a fundraiser. That's way in the future for now. I'll hit you up, I mean, I'll let you know when we will need your help! Meanwhile, thanks for all your help. You all inspired me to do this since you helped me through my sickness and back into health. Now I want to give back to the communtiy.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amy, Amy, Amy. Leave it to you to come up with such a marvelous idea!
Also, huge cudos to your Brother-In-Law, Billy, for his generous and
caring offer of help. Hopefully that's just the beginng. I might just add---a very important and needed beginning. Love, Diane

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful thing to do. You are truly amazing! You know our phone # when fundraising starts. Sometimes we wonder why things happen, I think God knew he could trust you to go through what you did and come out on the other side and be a great advocate for breast cancer sisters in your community.

Keep up the good work!

Love, Robin

Anonymous said...

You know I am in Amy!
Janette

L.L. Barkat said...

Mommy's LifeNet?

Moms for Mom?

Mom-Care?

I've just finished reading Living Downstream, which notes that one in three Americans get cancer. Your organization will be busy, and welcome, I'm sure.