| Deirdre's Leukemia Fighting Page! | |||||||||||||||||
| This page is dedicated to Matt Mehalick. | |||||||||||||||||
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Dear Friends, My name is Deirdre Farrell. I am a junior at Garrison Forest School an a student at Will Maier�s Martial Arts America. I would like to tell you about a friend of mine. His name is Matt Mehalick. He is 5 years old. He is bright, kind, talkative and has a wonderful sense of humor. His favorite book is �If you Give a Mouse a Cookie.� He loves gameboy, and is a very talented young artist. Last summer on June 19th, his family and he had the painful experience of discovering that Matt had cancer. Leukemia- the disease which kills more children each year than any other illness. Since June, he has been hospitalized 5 times, and had 6 visits to the emergency room. He is in remission now, but will have to continue chemotherapy until he is 8 years old. Yet Matt and his family are lucky, because so much progress has been made in cancer research. Over the last 3 decades, the survival rate for Leukemia patients has increased 57%. And the percentages continue to climb. In fact, researchers believe that with proper funding we could have a cure for Leukemia by the year 2000! The breakthroughs in medicine which are right now saving Matt�s and millions of others� lives, would not have been possible if it were not for the generosity of people who believed in the cause. There are people who have dedicated their lives to finding a cure for this disease. There are people who have given up their free time to help out as much as they can. There are people who have given what money they can spare to help save lives. All of these people are heros. So for Matt, his family, and everyone who has ever felt the pain caused by cancer, and anyone who ever might, I ask you, Could you be a hero? It�s not hard to be a hero - You don�t need to be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, or run around a crime-ridden city in brightly colored spandex- but if you could give a tax deductible donation to the Leukemia Society in honor of Matt, you�d certainly be a hero in my mind. This summer, on June 19th (exactly one year after Matt was diagnosed) I will be running a marathon (26.2 miles) in honor of Matt, and would love for you to sponsor me. For me, a marathon seems like a great challenge to overcome. But my challenge is nothing; the Hills on this marathon are nothing; the energy needed to run for hours is nothing - when you compare it to the obstacles that Matt and his family face daily. Thank you all for taking the time to read this. If you would like to give a tax deductible donation in honor of Matt or anyone else, please email me with your name and address, or if you want more info first email me with questions! Sincerely, Deirdre Farrell | |||||||||||||||||
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