Walk for Lupus Now!

Greetings to you,

However you may know me is irrelevant, because the only person I am today is one trying to support an important cause. One that's near and dear to me. Thank you for taking a few minutes to read! 

It is estimated that 1.5 million Americans have a form of lupus, an acute and chronic (lifelong) autoimmune disease in which the immune system is improperly regulated, causing inflammation and tissue damage to virtually every organ system in the body. The effects of Lupus can range anywhere from a seemingly innocuous rash to sever and often fatal damage to organs such as the liver, kidneys, nerves and even brain.

If this was not enough, the most common drugs prescribed for the treatment of Lupus tend to be highly toxic and dangerous in their own right, causing side effects like reduced quality of life, cognitive impairment, and severe, irreversible, damage to otherwise unaffected organs like the bones (avascular necrosis) and blood vessels (renaud’s syndrome).

In spite of this, November 2008 marked 50 years since a drug has been approved for the treatment of lupus. New treatment options are needed, but research requires funding. And that’s where we come in.

Money raised by the Walk for Lupus will be contributed to valuable research dedicated to developing better methods of detecting, treating, and hopefully eradicating Lupus once and for all. There is hope on the horizon, and with your help we can find better treatments and a cure.

Making a difference starts with one step. Thank you for taking this step!

With that said:

Please visit my WALK FOR LUPUS NOW page! I hope you will consider making a secure online donation to help me reach my gosl! It's easy to do - just click on the link to support me and complete the donation process. Or, sign up to join my team and walk with us on May 21st by following the links. I really appreciate your help!

Kati - Save the Children

Kati - Age 4

On December 1, 2010, I finished reading "What Is The What" by Dave Eggers, and it changed my life. War, starvation, poverty, illness... through the eyes of a child; horrors that no one, not even an adult, and especially not a young person, should ever have to live through. I decided that although I often find myself living check to check (as do most people in our current economy) I could easily save extra money every month to aid a child in need. 

That's when I met Kati.

Save The Children -
El Salvador

As soon as I saw her face on the Save the Children website, my mission became clear. I began sponsoring her immediately. I am proud to be apart of her life, and I hope every day that she will grow up with the desire to be all that she can - and the skills to make her dreams come true, despite all hardships she faces daily.

Kati is 4 years old, and she lives in Sonsonate, El Salvador (South America). She is very friendly and enjoys sports. She hasn't started school yet. The poverty conditions in her community are extreme, and I am grateful to be able to help in any way that I can. My monthly contributions are $28, and I have the opportunity to send extra gifts if I choose to do so. I look forward to developing a friendship with her that will last a lifetime.      

Click here to be directed to "What Is The What" on Amazon. [From Publishers Weekly] Starred Review. Valentino Achak Deng, real-life hero of this engrossing epic, was a refugee from the Sudanese civil war-the bloodbath before the current Darfur bloodbath-of the 1980s and 90s. In this fictionalized memoir, Eggers (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius) makes him an icon of globalization. Separated from his family when Arab militia destroy his village, Valentino joins thousands of other "Lost Boys," beset by starvation, thirst and man-eating lions on their march to squalid refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya, where Valentino pieces together a new life. He eventually reaches America, but finds his quest for safety, community and fulfillment in many ways even more difficult there than in the camps: he recalls, for instance, being robbed, beaten and held captive in his Atlanta apartment. Eggers's limpid prose gives Valentino an unaffected, compelling voice and makes his narrative by turns harrowing, funny, bleak and lyrical. The result is a horrific account of the Sudanese tragedy, but also an emblematic saga of modernity-of the search for home and self in a world of unending upheaval. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.