Relay for Life 2011

For the 5th year (every year since Garrett was diagnosed) Garrett's best friend, Jason has assembled a fine team of 24-hour relay walkers to raise money and support for the American Cancer Society in Garrett's honor.  My relay-for-life-donation-taking website is up if you would like to make a monetary donation this year, but in the event you can't donate or want to do more please consider some of the other ways you can support the intent of my efforts - reducing the burden of those who have to face cancer:

-Share my donation page with others who might want to contribute.

-Donate blood or register to be a stem cell/bone marrow donor.

-Write your politicians to encourage them to fund cancer research, protect cancer patients and further health care reform.

-Schedule your own cancer screenings.  (Just being diagnosed early can greatly reduce suffering)  And strive for a healthy lifestyle with activity, variety and everything in moderation, the best preventative so far.

(I will be emailing my website link too, my apologies if you receive this info twice!)

Research, reform and relay!

Health care policy and cancer research will probably be on top of my social priorities for the rest of my life as a way to honor Garrett’s fight by helping those who must follow after him suffer less. The following link is about a specific research project and clinical trial by Tgen that I have been following the progress of for more than a few years. It is one of the best chances other people with advanced basal cell carcinomas have to finding successful treatments. Although it will always be frustrating when research could have helped Garrett, this is outweighed by my appreciation for researchers getting closer to treatments that will work for others, so they must not go without targeted treatment options.


"New drug effective against the most common form of skin cancer"

This kind of progress is also a great reminder why support for medical research should remain a high priority in our agendas and budgets. We can all keep research of importance funded by writing or calling our politicians or making financial donations as we are able to organizations like Tgen, Stand Up To Cancer or American Cancer Society - Cancer Action Network which all support collaborative research in important ways.


Also, my favorite economist and health care policy advisor has a new blog article highlighting how our current employment-based health insurance system works by publicly subsidizing community rated insurance and how the health care reform recently passed is not radically different, but expands the system to be more available and affordable to all Americans instead of just those employed by companies who choose to or are large and thus required to provide health insurance to their employees.  Getting the rest of us closer to the insurance model which members of congress enjoy.

"The economics of privately sponsored social insurance"

Soon Garrett’s friends and I will be starting the 5th year of fundraising for the American Cancer Society through Relay for Life… look out for that post and then make your tax deductible donation, donate blood/stem cells/bone marrow at your local blood bank or get your own cancer screenings done for the year in honor of Garrett and all those who must fight cancer after him!

Big big day

I said last week it was about time we got back to work and tomorrow is when it really begins. We’ll be at the hyperbaric medicine department early tomorrow afternoon to get checked-in for a precautionary EKG and chest x-ray before Garrett tests out the hyperbaric chamber for the first time. Crossing all my fingers and toes that the treatment is comfortable enough for him and that time goes swiftly. If things go well tomorrow we will have afternoon hyperbaric treatments every weekday for at least four weeks, we'll let you all know how it goes.

Thanks to all who walked the track, stayed up all night, stopped by to say hello, sent in donations or thought good things for our Relay for Life team, Garrett’s Sneaky Ticklers! We can’t thank Garrett’s devoted friends enough for raising thousands of dollars for the American Cancer Society in his name, especially our team captain, Jason! Very lucky to have great friends and family around.

I’ve been playing soccer my whole life, but Garrett is keeping way better track of the World Cup and professional soccer these days! All I can say is GO USA!

Good times

Garrett finished up his twenty-eighth year of life by enjoying time with family and lifelong friends during a fabulous vacation. It’s about time we get back to work, but I wanted to let you all know what a great time we’ve had on this break and how proud I am of Garrett for getting out and having fun even when his body doesn’t want to cooperate. We took in a great baseball game in person, a co-birthday bbq, dinners out, dinners in, catching up with friends and lots of time relaxing in or around the Jacuzzi. Sounds like easy stuff to do on vacation, but after all it has been through, Garrett’s body has a tough time just getting out of bed many days. Doing all these fun things is quite an accomplishment and I appreciate all the effort he puts in just to get out and have good times.

Another year calls and we’ll kick it off next Saturday at our annual Relay for Life fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. Thanks to all our friends and family who have made donations this year and in past years, if you haven’t checked it out yet our team is the 5th place raiser for our relay event and we’re really close to making our fundraising goal! Garrett’s body won’t let him do a lot of walking this year so if you are in Seattle and have time between 10am Saturday and 10am Sunday, come join us and walk a few laps on the track!

Hope Part 2

Garrett's Sneaky Ticklers Relay for Life team is hitting the track for 24 hours June 12-13 to support the American Cancer Society!  Garrett's name will be under the team member list soon, but you can go at any time and make a donation to one of us online (or print out a mail-in form) if you would like to help fund the type of cancer research that results in vaccine discoveries like Garrett posted earlier today! Donations to the American Cancer Society also fund preventative screening events & coverage, patient/survivor support services, family & caregiver support, educational programs and lobbying policy makers on behalf of cancer victims!


Dollars are appreciated, but also consider doing another great act instead like:


-Visit and/or walk with us in Seattle June 12-13!
-Share our story and online donation page with others
-Schedule cancer screenings for yourself this year
-Donate blood at your local blood bank or blood drive

Thank you for supporting us everyday, Garrett and I couldn't do all that we do without the love we get from all of you!