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.