Dear Friends of the LINK,
I am writing to you as a fellow member of a club we never intended to join—cancer survivors. Many of you may also be a part of the club’s bone marrow/stem cell caregiver/loved one subcommittee.
Also, I have the honor of being a part of the National Bone Marrow Transplant Link team and of serving this organization in the development department, which means, in our non-profit world, I try to raise the funds needed to keep us operating.
We’re aware that you are most likely buried in a mountain of sincere appeal letters, all for important and worthy causes, and so I will be brief and to the point, and not impose on your valuable time recounting the history of my own journey.
However, I will share with you the joy I know for being an 18-year post-transplant survivor; and the enormous gratitude I experience each day for my “extra” 18 years of a full life.
Serving the LINK and YOU excites me every day. Imagining how we can better help those who are about to embark on this life-saving journey even keeps me awake at night.
We are a small but mighty group of four, who are paid for part-time work while working so much more than full-time. Why do we devote our time and energy to the LINK? Because we love what we are doing; because we want to make a difference; and we do it for you and for those you love.
When I was diagnosed, I didn’t know the difference between chemo and radiation and I certainly did not know what a patient advocacy organization was all about. But, oh, how much I have learned.
The help I found then and the assistance we strive to deliver today is meant to inform you, to make you feel that you are not alone and to provide guidance in whatever way you need it.
Your donation, in any amount, will help us to help others.
- A donation of $9 means the LINK can send a family a resource book on caregiving or a guide on what to expect when receiving a bone marrow/stem cell transplant.
- A donation of $50 ensures we can host another Telephone Series on the effects of cGVHD.
- A donation of $150 or more guarantees we can present another webinar to educate, to inspire, and, most importantly, to offer hope.
Without you and your support, we simply cannot provide these vital services. Please consider making a gift, in whatever amount is right for you, to the National Bone Marrow Transplant Link.
Thank you and Happy Holidays,
Claudia Laupmanis