Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Birthday Cards for Shane



Shane is a 7-year-old boy from Ottawa who has been diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and is fighting this at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO). According to the The Ti-Loup & La Poule Foundation (go here for an explanation of the name), Shane's story is heartbreaking:

"At almost 5 years old Shane was diagnosed with A.L.L. After 1 month into the treatment he was in early remission, meaning there were no cancer cells in his blood. Shane's family was very pleased with the early results, but his protocol called for 130 weeks of treatment. Then on July 6th, 2006 Shane relapsed after completing 108 of the 130 weeks. It was a shock to everyone including his doctors. Shane may have to undergo a bone marrow transplant down the road, but the good thing is that his brother Jacob is a match. Presently, there is no sign of cancer in Shane's system since relapsing."


They say his only "dislike" is "being in the hospital for long periods of time."

Shane is going to be 8 soon and would like to receive as many birthday cards as he can for his birthday. Its a pretty simple request and it would mean a great deal to this little boy. One of our local Ottawa radio stations is organizing drop offs around the city. Andrew Anderson at Bound By Gravity would like this to spread to the rest of the country. I say we spread it to the rest of the world.

Anyone reading this, no matter what your country, please send a card to Shane at:

SHANE
C/O KISS FM
2001 Thurston Dr.
Ottawa ON
Canada
K1G 6C9


Any bloggers reading this, please spread the word. Blog it and do it.

Let's make Shane's dream come true. Let's make it better than he imagined.

Personal Notes:

This was brought to my attention by Andrew at BBG via e-mail. If you read his write up you'll find this:

"My younger brother, Douglas, battled the same cancer that Shane is fighting - Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia - many years ago. The amount of time Douglas spent in hospitals had to be wearing on him, and the fact that he was able to put a smile on his face even in the hardest of times was always an inspiration. Sadly Douglas lost his fight twenty-three days shy of his thirteenth birthday."
I grew up in a very large family, with three brothers and two sisters. We were all happy, healthy farm kids and most of us are still pretty close. I cannot imagine what Andrew and his family went through, but I do know that had one of my brothers or sisters been in this situation, anything - cards, letters - would have made it easier to go through and a great comfort.

I am now a father of 3, with my oldest being 7 and my next one down being 5 - too close to Shane's age for comfort. I look at that little boy's face and I see my own little guy. For all these reasons I want this little boy to have a great birthday, because as Andrew can sadly attest, you don't really know how many you have, especially when you are sick with leukemia.

And while were helping Shane, lets not forget the other kids, and the diseases they fight. Donate to CHEO.

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15 Comments:

At 4:12 PM, Blogger Andrew said...

Thanks Mike. I hope this gets lots of traction.

 
At 9:47 PM, Blogger DazzlinDino said...

Count me in boys, i'll do a post on it for tomorrow and send my cards off....

 
At 7:41 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hello
I'm 16 years old and after hearing about Shane, i was so happy to help! I posted the necessary information on Facebook.com, this site has hundreds or thousands of people, i also sent his info to 50 friends, in hopes that they will send cards too!! I hope his wish comes true!

 
At 10:28 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

hi
i am 13
My name is Dee-Anna
I heard about the story of shane.. and i will send him a card and i wil get my friends to send one too
:)

 
At 9:50 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi, I am a school teacher and will be making B.Day cards for Shane with primary students and grade two students. I will pass along Shane's story to other teachers and schools so they might do the same.
Peace
NJR

 
At 9:58 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is a question. What is the time line? When is Shane's Birthday? I do not need the exact day (if privacy issues)but a date close to?
Thanks

 
At 6:14 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

my whole high school sent letters (including the teachers) so Shane should be getting 2000 cards very soon. He is so going to get the world record!

 
At 6:19 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think that his birthday is around May 30

 
At 3:17 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

One of the members leafgurl15 on the tmlforum made a thread about this.I hope he gets his wish I just sent my card out and sent a request to all of my email contacts to do the same.
all the best Shane from a friend in Cape Breton.

Her thread can be seen in the following link.

http://www.tmlforum.net/
index.php?topic=9264.msg62917;
topicseen#msg62917

 
At 9:46 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey,

Everyone in their Homeroom classes at Sacred Heart High School in Walkerton Ontario has sent Shane a birthday card. I hope he achieves his wish!

Our hearts go out to his family and friends and I'll be sure to send the message on.

Is it possible for him to recieve

 
At 11:23 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dear Mike,

All of the SAS students feel very sad for Shane. We are a sixth grade class who is sending all the birthday cards we can. The students in elementary are helping too.
From Billy Lomason Lieselotte lauwers and everyone in our class. We hope Shane gets better soon!!!!

 
At 8:35 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Amber

Hey Shane i heared about you and since i heard that u wanted to get as many cards as u can soo what me and my friends did is we got my whole school to sign a card a big card and we send it to u and i really hope that u like it even though u wanted to get as many cards as possible but i hope this will kind abe the same... the card is from bayridge public school... I REALLY HOPE THAT YOU GET BETTER SHANE LOVE YA XOXO

 
At 11:03 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi, my name is Claire and after hearing Shanes story, it made me so happy to help. I have made several announcements at my school to send cards to Shane, and my friends helping me expect to get quite a few cards from our Middle School in Wauwatosa Wisconsin. Good luck Shane, we can't wait to see your name in the record book!

 
At 10:09 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I am having my french classes do this ;]

 
At 7:32 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey Shane my name is Micaela and i am truley touched by your goal... i heard this through my school, nobel middle school in california, and i am having my brother, sister, and i are working our hardest to give you plenty of cards for your count......

micaela :]

 

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