H4H

If you read my blog, you might remember a post I had made called "A Call to Arms". It was an invitation to any and all those affected by cancer to tell their story, stories of success and survivorship, to inspire hope and strength. So far, the number of responses that I have received have been... lets just say less than impressive. People are busy enough as it is with treatments, updates, and whatnot. But we're still trucking on and my hopes for the site are for it to slowly, but surely, grow to one that others can go to when they are feeling a little down or discouraged. As I have said to others, I realize that their already exist sites dedicated to such things. However, when my mom was first diagnosed, I was not aware of any despite the amount of research and web-surfing I did. During what was undoubtedly the darkest time of our lives, we had to find a way to lift each other up and find strength within ourselves to move forward. God bless all those who contribute to the ACOR ListServ, because without them, we would not know NEARLY as much as we do. God bless others who inspire hope and strength, like the Brabbs (MM for Dummies) and Margaret (Margaret's Health Blog). They have brought an incredible amount of light and positive energy in a world that can feel dark, scary, and lonely sometimes. It's a beautiful thing, no? Everyone working together, as a united front, to tackle this disease? Just like there are various forms of treatment, hitting myeloma from different angles, there are different resources that help to keep us standing. This, too, is done from a variety of angles, from humor and optimism to nutrition and well-being to the most up-to-date information and knowledge. When we hit cancer from all these angles, we become stronger not only as individuals, but also as a collective group. For H4H, although there are similar sites, I figure... The more resources and sites there are out there, the higher the chance there will be that those newly diagnosed and those feeling down will be able to discover, not necessarily H4H, but *A* site to help them out. Pat Killingsworth, who I am sure many of you are aware of, has just sent in his own story of strength, success, and survivorship. If you are not familiar with his blogs (Multiple Myeloma Blog and Help With Cancer), I highly recommend that you check them out. They are INCREDIBLY informative and host an abundance of the most up-to-date news out there. If you would like to send in your own story, I would love to put it up on the site! Until then, I hope you are all doing well :)

L