Cancer Survivor Day!

Today is Cancer Survivor's Day!

To celebrate the 28MM survivors around the world and in memory of the loved ones we lost to cancer, I'll give a $5 gift certificate for Fictionwise (A Barnes & Noble Company) eBooks to the first 5 people who donate at least $10 each to my LIVESTRONG Challenge fundraising page (raised so far: $618.20):

http://austin09.livestrong.org/henrike

Thank you for supporting the global fight against cancer! Together we are making a difference!

P.S: If you can't make a financial contribution, please consider other ways to make a difference: volunteering some personal time at a cancer center, talking/listening to people who are going through treatment, wearing a cancer awareness ribbon or a LIVESTRONG wristbands. There are numerous ways to get involved, even in this tough economy.

Make smoking history campaign in Australia

"Make Smoking History" is an anti-smoking campaign, established in 2000 as an initiative of The Cancer Council Western Australia. The campaign "aims to contribute to efforts to drive down the prevalence of smoking among Western Australian adults".

The video shown below has been described by the campaign as being a ‘shock and awe’ montage of well known, smoking-related diseases taken from anti-tobacco campaigns shown in Australia over the last decade and aims for smokers to seek out support services to help them quit.

Online fundraising rally

I'm not particularly good at asking people for their money, even if it's for a cause as important as the global fight against cancer. Most of all, I feel bad about not giving donors anything in return, when they're being so generous with their hard-earned money.

So, I thought about a "giving-back" online fundraising rally, where a $8 donation to my fundraising page will get you a postcard from the Austin LIVESTRONG Challenge this October (for people living in the US and Germany; people living in other countries will receive a scan of their postcard via e-mail).

Plus, we'll award certain items (including a signed Lance Armstrong photo, LIVESTRONG items and a $10 eBooks gift certificate) to some individual donors. So, you might win a signed Lance Armstrong photo by donating as little as $5 to my fundraising acccount.

If you'd like to participate or know someone, who might be interested, please check out our 2009 LIVESTRONG fundraising rally

Thanks for reading!

Thank you for your donation:

Paul Raats Photography: www.8forlance.com

Michael Birdsong: www.teamholeinthewall.org/michaelbirdsong

Jamie & Chemo: A Journey of Hope

Slow start...

Since my fundraising is off to another slow start (seems to be the case every year;-), I'll match the first three new donations (up to $100/each). I'm not sure if that'll make a difference and will be an incentive for my friends/family/supporters to make a donation, but it's worth a try! Remember, every dollar counts in the global fight against cancer!

Thank you for considering a donation!

http://austin09.livestrong.org/henrike

Update #1: Just made the first matching donation. Thank you Jamie & Chemo for donating $100 to my fundraising page.

Jamie's skydive (Orange ROCKS)

I met Jamie at the LIVESTRONG summit in Columbus, Ohio last year. He was one of our track leaders for the Orange grassroots and advocacy track (Orange ROCKS, Livestrong), and a constant source of energy and motivation.

Jamie's father passed away after battling brain cancer for twenty-two years. Jaime himself was diagnosed with Stage 4b lymphoma in March of 2007.

He celebrated his 2 year cancerversary by jumping out of an airplane. It's his return to life...


Watch A Journey of Hope in Aktivismus & Nonprofit | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Game on, cancer....

Just watched the newest LIVESTRONG Challenge video... so many familiar faces of people I'm lucky enough to call friends.

We need to challenge cancer until nobody needs to suffer and/or die from this horrible disease, anymore. Pick a fight with cancer today and support those who are currently in treatment and those who are in their final stages of their lives.

FIGHT ON

1 HUGE reason we'll need to 'FIGHT ON' - remember Ryan Davidson of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin: read his story here He'll be missed (and not only as the Trojan's good luck charm)!

To everyone who doubted my ability to finish this semester...

During the last months, I received a lot of advice from a lot of people. Some of it was helpful and supportive, some of it not so much. Just imagine being in an accident at the start of the new semester and after a difficult year with thyroid issues. A lot of people told me to relax and concentrate on my recovery, get better slowly, forget about the semester and start again next term. After all, if you can't concentrate and/or read, what's the point in going to classes?!

Due to doctors' orders, I missed 4 weeks of classes, and even after I got back I had troubles with my concentration and my ability to memorize and process information due to my head injury. A lot of times I got frustrated because it took forever to just read a page of information or to even listen to and follow lectures. To be honest, I wasn't sure I'd be able to write my finals and I had to reduce my workload for this semester to 4 classes.

2 weeks ago I was done with my two finals and I can't express how proud I was that I didn't give up or listened to people doubting my ability to go through with this semester (even though it hurt at times). Today I received the information that my political science final grade was online. I got a 1.7 (A/B). After all the setbacks of the last weeks and months, this makes my day!

Hope everyone has a great weekend! Thanks for all the notes of encouragement- I really appreciate it.

World Cancer Day 2009

Today is World Cancer Day.

Cancer is a leading cause of death around the world. The WHO estimates that 84 million people will die of cancer between 2005 and 2015 without intervention.

The World Cancer Day promotes ways to ease the global burden of cancer.

From the UICC webpage:

"On 4 February, World Cancer Day, the International Union Against Cancer (UICC) will launch “I love my healthy active childhood”, the second full-year theme in our “Today’s children, tomorrow’s world” cancer prevention campaign."

Health update II

I had to visit my surgeon after some neck problems and just started my physical therapy for Grade 2 Whiplash- massage and fango treatments, which sounds nice, but with all the bruises and swelling and the headaches, it's really tough to get through.

I should be back to normal in about 4-6 weeks. The scar is healing nicely (on my right forehead, 18 stitches) and all my doctors were really impressed - I guess, I was lucky to have an ER doctor who did a really great job with stitching me up.

I'll hopefully be able to go back to college next week- three weeks of bed rest are more than enough- it's really getting boring. I tried to go back this week and failed miserably- so I guess you should listen to your doctor most of the times ;-)

Thanks to Leana, my accident or rather the minutes after the accident have been documented. Not my most gracious pictures, but quite impressive: