Let's save lives together!!

I'll do the running and you do the clicking (on that donate button)!

Hi!

My name is Jessica Chacon and I'd like your help. My philosophy in life is simple. We're put on this earth to be helped and to help one another. So I've done 5k races for breast cancer in the past though I never really focused on raising funds...but I've realized I'm not being as helpful as I can. That's why I'm training to participate in an endurance event as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team In Training. All of us on Team In Training are raising funds to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma from taking more lives. I am completing this event in honor of all individuals who are battling blood cancers especially those who've passed on like my NOAH sister Jennifer Andrade and young Broadway star Shannon Tavarez. These people are the real heroes on our team, and we need your support to cross the ultimate finish line - a cure!

In college I had a friend who I met in my scholarship program named Jennifer Andrade. She was spunky, cool and full of pizzaz! I noticed she wore wigs, but in this day and age that's no big deal. As our summer program progressed, she revealed to all 26 of us that she was a cancer survivor. She had Hodgkin's Lymphoma but she had been in remission for a while and looked forward to the day when she'd walk across the stage and collect the degree she worked 4 years to earn. For the next year and a half we'd see less and less of Jennifer as her cancer came back with a vengence (cancer tends to be vindictive like that). It wasn't long before we were gathered together and told the news that Jennifer had passed on. I chose not to go to her viewing or funeral because I wanted to remember her as that fashionable bubbly girl I met on July 5th, 1998. I will never forget her verve and love of life. May God rest her soul.

A couple years later, I started working @ Memorial Sloan Kettering. Every spring there'd be a day when I'd go get my lunch and I'd see little bald children dressed in oversized gowns and suits (some in hospital beds w/ IVs attached) all over the main floor. They'd all be on their way to the MSK Spring Dance aka "The Prom". I remember the 1st time I saw the kids heading to the dance because at that very moment I realized, "Damn, a lot of these babies might not live to see a school prom. It broke my heart b/c I couldn't stop them from being sick or dying. On the flip side I also realized those little boys and girls were the biggest heroes I'd ever see because the life of a child with cancer (esp. blood cancer) is one I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.

I say all this to say...don't wait until the big C comes knocking on your door to get up and do something...click that donate button and take part in saving a life. I guarantee you won't miss that 5 or 10 dollar bill as much as someone else might miss their mom, dad, sister, brother, daughter or son.

*~*~*BONUS*~*~*

I will create a painting or decorate a t-shirt for the person(s) with the largest donation!!!!

If you're just checking out the page,

I hope you will visit often.

Be sure to check back frequently to see my progress.

Tell a friend to tell a friend that I need everyone's support!

Thanks!

LOVE

Jessica <3