Support for LateToSchool

[CountingDown]

<p>Hope you had a wonderful birthday, LTS, and that as a Long-Tern Survivor, you will see many, many more.</p>

[epistrophy]

<p>and another</p>

<p>

“Craven Relay for Life raises $333,895”</p>

<p>People raised at least $333,895 at the 14th Craven County Relay for Life, organizers said Saturday at the end of the event.</p>

<p>Many who worked to raise the money spent Friday night and Saturday morning walking around the track at Grover C. Fields Middle School. White bags filled with candles and white Relay for Life flags flapped in the warm breeze. Sweat dripped from the faces of some walkers to the track below.</p>

<p>Diane Dail and Jamie Peterson walked at 9:30 a.m. Saturday with a 12-member youth group from Macedonia Free Will Baptist Church in Ernul. The church raised $7,000 this year for the American Cancer Society.</p>

<p>“We’ve lost five members to cancer since Christmas,” Peterson said. “It’s been a mixture for our church. We’ve had breast, colon, prostate, lung and ovarian cancer and melanoma. It’s like everyone you know or their family has a form of it.”</p>

<p>Peterson said her grandmother survived lung cancer. Dail said her husband survived a lymphoma. He walked Friday night.</p>

<p>“I just feel real proud people of this community are so willing to give time and money to support something so big,” Dail said. “I’m sure it’s that way in most communities. But it seems there’s more support in our area.”</p>

<p>Jim Allan, a member of the “Survivors and Friends” team, placed sunglasses on his face, walked four laps and took a break. He repeated the process. Allan said he walked because his wife survived cancer.</p>

<p>His team raised $6,888 this year, said Barbara Phillips, who organizes the team. Phillips said she’s participated in all 14 Relay for Life events in the county. In that time, her teams have raised more than $88,000 for the cancer society. Many of the members have been cancer survivors.</p>

<p>“We’re just here today reminiscing about stories that always seem to happen at these relays,” Phillips said. “It’s very therapeutic.”</p>

<p>Members of Phillips’ team and other teams sat under tents and listened to Wasted Years, a local band, play songs by John Mayer and REO Speedwagon. Many people drank bottles of water and iced drinks.</p>

<p>The relay ended about noon. A disc jockey played Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive.” Organizers announced the teams that raised the most money.</p>

<p>Craven County Wood Energy raised $20,800.83, the most by a business team. Alfred Barfield raised $11,000, the most by one person. Darlene Spivey, a relay organizer, said participants raised a total of $333,895.15. She said that number may increase the next few days as money is totaled.</p>

<p>To end the event, participants walked under a tent and pulled a white American Cancer Society flag out of the ground. They walked one more lap to end the event.</p>

<p>“We’re in a sorority we didn’t plan to be in,” Barbara Phillips said. “We’ve all survived different numbers of years. We’ve got scrapbooks of all these relays. Oh, we’ll be back next year.”

</p>

<p>[Local:</a> Craven Relay for Life raises $333,895 | cancer, raised, walked : Sun Journal](<a href=“http://www.newbernsj.com/news/cancer_39248___article.html/raised_walked.html]Local:”>http://www.newbernsj.com/news/cancer_39248___article.html/raised_walked.html)</p>

[epistrophy]

<p>and another</p>

<p>

“Independent Publisher Book Awards
Honoring the year’s best independently published titles”</p>

<p>Gayle Zinda, lung cancer survivor, motivational speaker, and author of Pink Lemonade: Freshly Squeezed Insights to Stir your Faith brings her tenacious spirit of hope and faith to thousands of cancer victims and their families. She was a two-time medalist at the 2007 IPPY Awards for Pink Lemonade, earning a silver medal in the Inspirational/Spiritual category as well as another silver in the Best Book Marketing-Print division. Gayle’s organization, Pink Lemonade Presentations, has an uplifting mission: “To help people realize that life’s lemons can be made into lemonade when stirred with faith!” The inspirational people of Pink Lemonade Presentations travel the country in the festive “Motorvator”, speaking at events, spreading awareness and encouragement on the topic of cancer. </p>

<p>“Pink Lemonade is a special treasure. Every page shines with warmth, sacrifice and compassion. Gayle Zinda is a great teacher and a source of personal enlightenment. Gayle’s decision to share her story and personal struggles will ultimately enrich us all. On behalf of the Lung Cancer community, we are so grateful for Gayle’s message of hope. We will follow Gayle’s advice and make lemonade out of lemons every day.” </p>

<pre><code> -Laurie Fenton Ambrose, President and CEO, Lung Cancer Alliance

</code></pre>

<p>[Independent</a> Publisher Book Awards](<a href=“http://ippyawards.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/]Independent”>http://ippyawards.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/)</p>

<p>[Amazon.com:</a> Pink Lemonade: Freshly Squeezed Insights to Stir Your Faith: Gayle M. Zinda: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Pink-Lemonade-Freshly-Squeezed-Insights/dp/0977036804/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209333614&sr=1-1]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Pink-Lemonade-Freshly-Squeezed-Insights/dp/0977036804/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209333614&sr=1-1)</p>

<p>(<a href=“http://www.lemonmotivators.com/index.html”>http://www.lemonmotivators.com/index.html&lt;/a&gt;)</p>

[latetoschool]

<p>Epistrophy, you make excellent points, in the effort to get more funding, research, or just some balance to the effort to treat and cure lung cancer, I think we think we can “sell” never smokers; active smokers, not so much, (and there is no hope of stopping big tobacco). And it’s not fair or smart either to call one group “guilty” and the other “innocent” - I have no idea what causes an addiction, or how to break free of it, and there have been too many people who have tried to quit and cannot. But then there are many people who have tried and succeeded, and, I have no idea what is the difference between the two. </p>

<p>But then this all rolls up to the bigger issue of funding for ALL cancers; with one in four persons in the U.S. being diagnosed at some point in their lifetimes, and with NCI’s funding actually cut this year…</p>

<p>CountingDown, thank you, I hope to see many more as well… I actually still feel very yucky though - yesterday was challenging; today I feel somewhat better - yesterday I did 90 minutes on the treadmill but turtling along; today, I shopped with my daughter most of the day but it took a lot to do that. I am hoping that this is a combination of the wbr and chemo and steroid tapering, and that things improve soon…</p>

[ADad]

<p>

He can who thinks he can, and he can’t who thinks he can’t. This is an inexorable, indisputable law. </p>

<p>-Picasso</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Happy Birthday LTS!</p>

<p>:)</p>

[sybbie719]

<p>Happy Brithday LTS!!!</p>

<p>I hope that you have a wonderful day!!</p>

[corranged]

<p>Yes, happy birthday!</p>

[epistrophy]

<p>and two more</p>

<p>

**“Taking back control over cancer”</p>

<p>Jim Carpenter calls cancer an “insidious disease.”</p>

<p>Carpenter, 50, should know.</p>

<p>Three years ago, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He underwent chemotherapy, radiation and three surgeries that removed one-third of his lung and both adrenal glands.</p>

<p>But Carpenter survived. He has been cancer-free for six months.**</p>

<p>“You cannot survive cancer without hope. You can live with cancer if there is hope for a cure in the pipeline,” Carpenter said this week in explaining his participating in the Portage Relay for Life.</p>

<p>The event, set for June 6 and 7 at Willowcreek Middle School, raises money for the American Cancer Society. Eighty-three cents of each dollar raised, he said, goes to independent laboratories looking for that cure and for programs that directly affect people with the disease.</p>

<p>Cancer, Carpenter said, also leaves those coping without any sense of control.</p>

<p>Raising money, raising awareness and celebrating those who have survived and those lost to disease gives back some of that control, he said.</p>

<p>“We can’t do research. We aren’t the surgeons, but we can raise money to help them do their job,” the steelworker said.</p>

<p>Carpenter and his wife, Debby, daughters Denise and Emily and friends have formed their own Relay for Life team – Team Camp-Land – this year with the intent of raising $20,000 for the society. Last year, the family was part of the Real Life Community Church team, which raised $13,000. The family on its own raised $2,000 last year. Emily, 16, has also started her own team, SWAT (Students with a Target).</p>

<p>Before becoming involved in Relay for Life (Jim and Debby are also on the city’s overall committee for the event), Jim Carpenter said he thought being there would be a “downer.” He said that is the farthest thing from the truth.</p>

<p>“Relay is a celebration of life, a celebration of people who lived, people who survived and their caregivers,” he said.</p>

<p>The event started in 1985 and has grown across the globe. The family said the events over the 24 hours are very emotional, from the survivor’s dinner and lap around the track to the luminaria ceremony after dark.</p>

<p>“We do this with the hope that no other family has to go through this,” Debby Carpenter said.

</p>

<p>[Taking</a> back control over cancer / nwi.com](<a href=“Taking back control over cancer”>Taking back control over cancer)</p>

<hr>

<p>

“Reception Held To Honor Cancer Survivors” </p>

<p>Many Lauderdale County cancer survivors met Sunday for the Annual Cancer Survivors and caretakers reception. Organizers say there was plenty to celebrate. This come just two weeks before Relay For Life in Lauderdale County.</p>

<p>The message during the reception was that the survivors can lean on and learn from each other.</p>

<p>“The early diagnosis and the research has just made such a difference in the survival rate,” said survivor Jeanette Gossett, a survivor of lung cancer.</p>

<p>Organizers want the survivors to know that relay for life is for them, for their family members and for future generations.

</p>

<p>[Reception</a> Held To Honor Cancer Survivors](<a href=“http://www.wtok.com/news/headlines/18323349.html]Reception”>http://www.wtok.com/news/headlines/18323349.html)</p>

<p>(P.S. to LTS: Happy Birthday!)</p>

[2VU0609]

<p>Happy Birthday, LTS! From the looks of the weather map, you may have a bit of gloom and rain today, but here’s hoping the good wishes of CC friends will brighten your day!</p>

[nceph]

<p>Happy Birthday, LTS. I wish you many happy returns of the day.</p>

[oaklandmom]

<p>Happy Birthday, LTS!</p>

[martharap]

<p>More happy birthday wishes from the Midwest!</p>

[mimk6]

<p>Happy Birthday from the West Coast! Wishing you a fabulous year.</p>

[SBmom]

<p>Me too! </p>

<p>This thought popped into my head: just like how you do one stair at a time, or walk one block at a time: do each day, all 365 of them, but one at a time-- and we’ll all meet here again next year.</p>

<p><3</p>

[operamom]

<p>I am a longtime lurker in complete awe of you. We pray for you daily at our house!</p>

[latetoschool]

<p>Yes, what is up with the rain today? LOL thank you for the birthday wishes; I actually feel better today, for which I am grateful. I even look better, a lot of the steroid swelling has gone away. It is encouraging to be able to sort of recognize the person in the mirror again. </p>

<p>This is also (I think) further verification that physical activity is the key to recovery. Saturday evening I felt so terrible that I could only lay/lie (which word is correct here anyway lol) on the floor; I literally ate my dinner by lying next to it and managing one small forkful at a time. I’d walked the treadmill earlier but at an incredibly slow pace - anyway, slept ten hours, got up Sunday, still felt really horrible but went shopping with my daughter, which meant walking around for five hours. We were trying to find a dress for her for her young man’s graduation and awards ceremony. Last night, felt much better;today, feel even better still and it is hard to imagine that I felt as bad as I did Saturday night. But I’m taking a break from the stairs and other strenuous activity, let the disc situation try to heal. </p>

<p>She found the perfect dress and is in love with it, but it’s very, very pricy. Our plan was to think about it, do some more shopping this next weekend. I am going to head out of work a little early, buy it for her, surprise her with it tonight. This will be sooooo much fun, because I can pretend I bought myself something for my birthday; she’ll say “let me see it”, and so I will say “o.k.”, and then I will open the opaque dress covering material that they always zip these sorts of clothing articles in, and she will be VERY surprised. I can’t wait. LOL.</p>

<p>Thank you so much to everyone for the kind wishes, and also for the prayers. I am feel so blessed and fortunate to be so surrounded by such generous support and kind thoughts.</p>

[NYMomof2]

<p>Happy birthday, LTS!!! I’m so glad you’re feeling better. And I wish I could see your daughter’s face when she opens the dress!</p>

[Moominmama]

<p>Happy, happy birthday, LTS! May the sun shine a bit to illuminate the beauty of spring and make you smile.</p>

<p>What a generous gift to your daughter, giving her a special gift on your birthday.</p>

[mominva]

<p>I think seeing your daughter’s surprised face this evening will be the BEST birthday present.
Many, many happy returns!</p>

[sax]

<p>HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LTS!!!</p>

<p>Have a great dinner out tonight and wonderful time celebrating with your daughter.</p>