The Sassy Saver » Cancer Awareness

Being Thankful!

Melissa — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 21:09:00 +0000

A friend of mine sent me this video. It is all for cancer awareness. Watch it and enjoy and be grateful for wonderful people who give so much for others. Also be thankful you are healthy!!

I am thankful for all that and for you, my readers!

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Click To Give to Cancer! No money Required!

Melissa — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:33:00 +0000

I just found out about that site and so I wanted to highlight it so you all can give back without it costing you a cent. All you need to do is click HERE and you will be able to give to cancer just by clicking! Thanks as always for giving and thanks especially for giving to this cause!

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A Simple Way To Give Support To Those With Cancer

Melissa — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:50:00 +0000

If you have been around my blog a while you know that My father died of cancer 5 years ago. I have spent these last 5 years trying to find anything I can in the way of giving back on a budget. When I received an email form a reader telling me about ChemoAngels, I was so impressed that she had served those with cancer in such a way that I asked her if she could share her story with you. She sent me her story and I want to share it with you first and then I will give you a bit of my thoughts and hopes at the end of the post.

This is her story.

“Well, what can I say about ChemoAngels. It is a great organization. I am a volunteer at heart. It is one of my greatest passions, but sometimes traveling to somewhere to give time can be difficult when you are working full time and caring for your family. So after seeing ChemoAngels featured online I decided to check it out. I became a Card Angel sending cards and small gifts once a week. It required little time, but I was able to connect with that part of me that wanted to serve another person.

I have done this on and of for 4 years. You apply on the site and are matched with a patient. This can take several weeks. My first patient was an elderly man whose wife I did share correspondence with. His cancer was treated and went into remission. This was a great first experience for me. What you must know though is that this is not a penpal type of thing. Your patient is not obligated to communicate with you, they can if they choose. You receive check-up info through ChemoAngels directly to see how your patient is doing. I have had other patients that have sent a card as they graduated the program thanking me for my care. Patients leave the program one of 3 ways – remission, lack of communication\check in, or death.

I have not had a patient die, but I have had one cancelled for lack of check-in. It was saddening, because of course you wonder what struggles they are facing. With a situation like that you send a final letter and if you so choose sign up to be matched with another patient. “

First off, I really want to thank Stephanie for sharing this with me. I had never heard of ChemoAngels before. I can honestly say though that those few minutes it takes her to write and send a card of encouragement with a little personal note about her and her family made the day of that chemo patient. They sit for long hours getting treatment and to have the correspondence of someone for them to read or to feel the encouragement from makes the time go by faster and helps the whole family to get through the process.

By the new year I hope to be able to be a part of this. I have a few things I need to finish up in the next couple months, but I hope to be able to give to someone and to help them find the strength to fight this horrible disease. With the recent passing of Patrick Swayze, it has brought back a lot of the feelings that went along with the disease in my family. I feel it is such a small thing that only takes a small amount of time and is probably one of the best ways you can give to the cause on a budget. Please take the time to look into this and see if you have a few minutes that you can give to someone in need. It will mean more then you could ever imagine!

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Help Save A Life: Update and a New Code

Melissa — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 14:50:00 +0000

Do you remember my friend that emailed me looking for a donor match for bone marrow, I have an update for you!!

There still has been no match. They are doing marrow testing drives everywhere they can. She need a 10/10 match in the marrow because of the rarity of the disease she has. I wanted to post this agin because in 2 weeks if there is still not a match they will start chemo again for her. She is trying desperately to avoid this because she has a baby at home.

here is the piece the local news station did for her. click HERE

The best part about this is that even if you aren’t a match for Summer, you may be a match for someone else. It doesn’t matter where you live they will transport the marrow to where it needs to go and for most it is donated just like you donate blood. The kit is free and if they find you match someone you will be the one to help to save a life or make one longer. There are many who are waiting for you so please if you can do this, do it now and help someone in need.

Here is the info again for you that was sent to me. There is a new code to use as the summer code has expired. to get the new code go tot he site and register and then it will appear. you will be sent the kit and be able to see if you match anyone. If you have a local blood bank around you then you can also go there.

“Be The Match!

One of my sister’s dearest friends has a rare bone disease called aplastic anemia. Summer Hackett Vitelli is currently looking for a perfect match for a bone marrow transplant. The website http://www.marrow.org is mailing free kits to those who would like to join with the promo code Summerhope. They come in about 4 days. It registers you for the National Bone Marrow registry. Since, the sassy saver is all about freebies I was hope you could post this on your site. The donor kit consists of 4 swabs that you rub on your inner cheek to give them cell samples. For Summer, she needs mainly blood (80%) and marrow (20%). She has about 3 weeks to find a match. So if you could urge people to join quickly in her case (and I’m sure many others) time is of the essence.”

Thanks for all who can do this. your contribution will mean so much to those it helps!

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Help Save A Life!

Melissa — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 22:09:00 +0000

I recieved an email from a friend of mine asking me to post about a friend of her’s who is in need of some blood and bone marrow transplant. Time is an important thing here. so If you are willing to do this lease act quickly. Here is the email I recieved.

If you are interested in helping out with this, please act quickly for her. And THANK YOU to all who do it!

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New Link For Home Made Simple Coupon Book

Melissa — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 01:37:00 +0000

HERE is another link for the Home Made Simple Coupon book. These things just keep on coming!

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Cancer Prevention And Survival Booklet

Melissa — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:19:00 +0000

After I posted My I HATE CANCER post, I was checking out some blogs and I found a Cancer Prevention and Survival booklet from Healthy Eating for Life. I was excited! It is full of vegetarian meals. It is proven that eating more fruits and veggies helps to fight and prevent cancer. So you will definitely want to get this! I am not a vegetarian, but it is definitely a great way to try out a few ways to add more of these things to your diet.

Thanks Free Sample Freak!

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A Little Out Of The Box, But I Just Feel The Need To Speak Up

Melissa — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 03:22:00 +0000

If you have been around a while you may or may not know that my father died of cancer 4 1/2 years ago. I can’t tell you enough how much I am growing to have a great lothing for cancer. I disliked it before, but the more and more I hear of people having it or the way it comes into peoples life and messes with all parts of it, the worse the hate gets.

I recently found out of a friend of my husbands who is in his early 20′s just recently finding out he has testicular cancer. He isn’t married, but the cancer is pretty much through most of his body. There is also a friend I have who is currently fighting it and going through treatment after treatment to try to save his life so he can see his 4 kids grow up. Then last night I was watching Extremem Makeover Home Edition and this amazing family who had opened their home to so many children, had to fight that fight as well.

I just can’t believe how many people are lost to the disease and it seems that there is a bit more awareness to it, but more money gets pumped into other things when there are thousands dying each day ( in 2006 is was about 1500 a day). I can’t even express to you what this disease does to a family. The person who gets it is constantly being treated and tested and having scans. most of the time treatment takes hours at a time and the spouse or parent of the person who has it sits there while it happens. The patient also is constantly worried of what will come next. they are hopeful for more, but are worried that their loved ones will be ok.

The families try to stay hopeful as well. They tell their loved ones that they can fight it. They try to encourage them to fight it with all they have. Yet in the back of their mind is a constant fear of everything going wrong. of their loved ones not being able to make it and for them to be left without them. It is a life of fear and hurt and not understanding why this is happening.

My Father had pancreatic cancer. He lived in pain most of the last year of his life. Most people hurt a lot physically through the treatments. But the thing that happened to our family that I will never forget is that we have been able to grow together. We forgot about all the fluff of life. All the busy things that everyone gets so caught up in and we were able to focus on what is most important. This horrible disease brought us together. And the whole time this was happening was why did it take so long for us to be this way. Why did it take his horrible disease to bring that out in us. I think it was at that point that I realized that my family could make it on very little. that as long as we had our basic needs met that we didn’t need a lot of the fluff to make ourselves happy.

My point in bringing all this up is to tell you all how much I hate cancer and how much I want to find something to help others. If it is a cure great if it is a better way to cope so lives are altered quite so much, anything to help others to not feel so shaken by the whole experience. I have been doing a lot of thinking about what I can do. So I am wanting to open his up a bit to you my readers. I want you to have a chance to share your story. And I also want to bring awareness to the subject on all levels. If you have any experiences you would like to share please feel free to share them in the comments, or to email them to me. I will be posting stories as I get them so others can gain the understanding of what the experience is like and how you can help!

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