PHASE 2!!!!!!!!

HOLLAAAA!

Ok, so we know it's been a while and we kept on saying to "get ready" for Lord knows how long, but we're *SO* excited to announce that M.A.M.is.BACK! and with a vengeance! After an incredibly successful awareness and fundraising campaign (that has received press coverage from front-page news to PEREZ HILTON), we're officially launching PHASE II of our campaign with a pair of tickets to LADY GAGA's concert in SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH! Whoever can raise the most money for charity (100% goes to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation) wins the tickets! It's that simple!

Ra Ra

You ready Salt Lake City? Paws Up... ;)

Media Minute

We're in the news again!

Check it out HERE

Fundraising 101

Having just completed (Phase I) of my very first fundraiser, I must say... I'm SUPER proud of what we've been able to accomplish. The amount of awareness that we've been able to generate since the beginning has surpassed all my expectations. I know that many of you will probably try to start your own sort of fundraiser to raise money and awareness for myeloma, so I thought I would share with you my "lessons learned" from this experience to help you out :)

1. There will always be those who support you, and those who criticize you. That's just how the game is played. Always show your gratitude and try not to take anything personally :)

2. ALWAYS have a Plan B... and C, D, E, F, G. Things never go the way you originally planned, so be prepared to make adjustments. You must be able to adapt to new situations and circumstances to make the most of your fundraiser.

3. Plan for the worst, Hope for the best :)

4. Stop searching. Make your own opportunities

5. He/she who cracks the whip will not always be the most popular person on the team. Such is the sacrifice that a team leader may have to make in order to get work done.

6. If you have a team working for you, delegate tasks. That is the only way to get work done.

7. Give yourself deadlines.

8. Have everything set up before you begin any promotion. Momentum is key and comes with publicity. If your donations program, etc. is not set up, then you will lose that momentum and interest.

9. Find ways to constantly keep up the momentum and motivation, in your team and your supporters. Once it is gone, it is very difficult to get back.

10. Never lower your standards. Mediocrity is NOT an option!

Feel free to add any of your own tips/advice!

Paws Up!

Little Monsters!
I wanted to update everyone on how PHASE I (more on this later!) of M.A.M. went :)

The competition for two floor tickets to Lady Gaga’s Monster Ball at Rexall Place in Edmonton on August 27, 2010 concluded two days ago.

We are pleased to announce that Kathy Chia of Edmonton is the winner. Congratulations Kathy, you’ve earned it!
We would also like to thank everyone who took part in the competition; thank you for participating and helping us raise funds and awareness for this little-known disease.

In addition, thank you to everyone for joining our campaign of awareness and hope. Now, little monsters and myelomaniacs, we are that much closer to making multiple myeloma a household name, a feat that will undoubtedly aid in the discovery of new treatments and, one day, a CURE! This would have never happened without the sheer, collective power of working together for a better future. So again, thank you!

Monsters Against Myeloma is FAR from being over (as we have some VERY exciting news to share with you all soon!), so please encourage all those you know to join our group and follow suit.

We have members here that come from all over the world! From France to Germany to Iceland to Brazil to the States to right here in Canada! Together, united as one, we are capable of achieving anything. We are capable of what, at times, seems like the impossible; we are capable of DEFEATING.CANCER.

We are still accepting donations for the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation. Please visit http://321cure.themmrf.org/site/TR?pg=fund&fr_id=1040&pxfid=9150 or the discussion board of our facebook group for more details.

PAWS UP LITTLE MONSTERS, PAWS UP!

GAGA FOR GAGA! MONSTERS AGAINST MYELOMA! WE.ARE.LIVE!!!

Ok so I just realized that I hadn't made this **VERY** important post yet!!! Tsk tsk. But as i'm sure you can tell, our fundraising effort "Monsters Against Myeloma" is officially LIVE!!! (FINALLY). If you don't know already, basically I am giving away a pair of FLOOR.LADY.GAGA tickets to her August 27 show in Edmonton, Alberta to the person/team that is able to raise the most money for the MMRF (Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation). If you would like to compete, please send us an e-mail indicating so at monstersagainstmyeloma@live.com! If you don't want to compete for these wonderful tickets, but would still like to support our campaign of hope, awareness, strength, and gaga-tude, the steps are SUPER easy!

1. Visit out site here

2. Click on the "Make a Donation" button

3. Fill out the necessary fields

4. (optional) Write your name, donation amount, and a message in our guest book!

*note*: Tax-receipts are mailed out to the address indicated in the billing information

Easy peasy right?! I can't tell you how much your support means to us. We appreciate every word, every hug, every dollar, everything. In the end, we are all working towards the same cause (a CURE!), so hopefully M.A.M. will be able to contribute towards that ambitious, but fully possible and realistic, goal. Even if we only manage to raise a penny, I will still consider M.A.M. a raging success. We started off as a small idea to raise a little money for charity, and exploded into this international, global campaign of hope and awareness. It has been through our global brothers and sisters (yes, YOU!), that we have been able to add an extra step in making Multiple Myeloma a household name. Gaga is the biggest superstar on planet Earth right now. Combining her incredibly passionate (and LARGE) fanbase with all us crazy and super duper myelomaniacs(/myelomics/myelomians), we have been able to communicate our message to the farthest corners of the planet. In our facebook group, we have people from Canada, America, Germany, France, Iceland, Italy, and more! Currently, we have about 870 members. THIS MEANS that at LEAST 870 members now know about Multiple Myeloma, a disease I had never even HEARD of pre-diagnosis. I think it is safe to say that you may now check off step 1 of Operation: WORLD DOMINATION. Great Job Little Monsters/Myelomaniacs, great job! Now let's see this to the end and END.CANCER.ONCE.AND.FOR.ALL!

The Big T

So. Today is a big day. It is the first day in a very important and long process that will **hopefully** do the trick in setting my mom into a deep and long remission, until a cure is discovered. Yesterday I went to bed with a mix of emotions... This day has been a long time coming. And you would think 7 months would be plenty time to prepare yourself not only mentally, but also physically and spiritually. But the truth is, no amount of preparation can make you feel "ready" for this kind of procedure. Unless you've gone through it before, you really have no idea what to expect. And even if you have, I doubt the second time is the same as the first. We figure, it is best to just take this thing on a day to day basis. It can get a little overwhelming if you look at the process as a whole. So, baby steps here. Let's hope this thing goes by as fast as treatment has (its already been almost 7 months!!!).

In other news...
This has probably been one of the longest weeks of my life. Let's see:

Thursday (July 8) - Newspaper interview

Friday (July 9) - Front page news, damage control, last day of chemotherapy before transplant, PEREZ HILTON shout-out. HUGE influx of facebook group members!

Saturday (July 10) - Global Shift article

Sunday (July 11) - Unproductive M.A.M. Meeting

Monday (July 12) - Drama/Crisis/BIGTIMEDamageControl. My very first meltdown :) (total gongshow, by the way)

Tuesday (July 13) - Productive M.A.M. Meeting

Wednesday (July 14) - Bone Marrow Biopsy Results (74% down to 16%!!!!)

Thursday (July 15) - A **LOT** of M.A.M. Work

Friday (July 16) - Monsters Against Myeloma is LIVE!

Saturday/Sunday (July 17/18) - Rest

Monday (Today) - Begin Autologous Stem Cell Transplant process.

Shiz. We've definitely been busy. Overall, I think my stress level has probably gone up a couple notches. From the fundraiser to some family issues to the stress of the transplant, it is a miracle I have not been admitted into an institute yet. To tell you the truth, I am absolutely terrified of this transplant coming up. Not so much the procedure itself (although that is undoubtedly a bit daunting), but more so wondering how my mom will take it... All I want to do is protect her, but in these situations, it is QUITE a frequent occurrence to feel powerless... But not hopeless. Because there is ALWAYS hope. Sometimes it feels like a David and Goliath battle. But we all know what the outcome of that situation was right? ;) So, like every other day, I put on my brave face and do everything all over again. Its not easy, but you'd be surprised in the places you are able to draw strength from. We're starting a new chapter now, so wish us luck :) And for my prayer warriors out there, please pray that this thing goes without a hitch. That my mom has a super speedy recovery. And that it will be the last thing needed to set her into a long and lasting remission. Thank you :)

Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

This Shit is INSANE!!!

HOLY GUACAMOLE!!!!

OK. I just thought I would update everyone on what we've been up to and how the "Monsters Against Myeloma" event has been going :)

The last 24 hours have been BANANAS! Where do I even begin?!

Perhaps the beginning is a good start (obvi).

(I'm running on about 4 hours of sleep here, accompanied by +30C weather. So if I seem a little crazy, it's because I am)

1. Yesterday I did a great interview with the Edmonton Sun, answering questions about the MAM event and basically what we've been up to since the beginning of the year (diagnosis). It was quick, simple, and that was that! I was expecting the article to be a tiny little blurb in some obscure location within the newspaper, but DANG was I wrong. This morning I woke up to a text message saying, "You're on the front page! Congratulations!" My mom would later tell me that she had opened up a fortune cookie the night before foreshadowing a "surprise". Coincidence? (Link to our article HERE)

2. This bit might seem a little confusing, so i'll try to lay it out the best I can. Basically, we have kept my mom's situation on the downlow within my family solely for the reason that my grandparents don't find out. The very last thing we need is for another family member to get sick from stress. Not cool. So because of that, we had only told a couple families within our extended family. I'm not entirely sure WHAT I WAS THINKING when I was doing the interview and sent in the picture for the news article, but it definitely was not one of my brightest moments. So when I read the above mentioned text, I literally sat up straight in my bed and almost screamed. Yeah yeah, drama queen, I know. But I soon found out that the Sun had posted a HUGEEEEE picture of Gaga with a picture of my mom and I on the bottom. Yeah, that's not gonna get any attention AT ALL! You see, there are still people in my family that live in Edmonton who don't know about my mom's situation. I think I was somehow trying to get publicity for the event but at the same time foolishly pretend that my family would never get word of it? Silly SILLY Lance, Tricks are for... (you can complete this sentence). So for about a gooood...5 hours, I was a nervous wreck. I don't think I have been that stressed out since my mom was diagnosed. Yeah, brutes. I even lost my appetite (if you will remember, this also happened to me when mama bear was diagnosed). MY APPETITE! This is coming from a guy that feverishly watched 5 hours straight of Cake Boss...WHILST.EATING.CAKE! (and lots of it) Anyways, long story short, we haven't heard from any family members (yet), so we're hoping they didn't hear the news. My mom freaked out a little this morning, but now she thinks it might turn out to be a blessing in disguise. So... I'll roll with it. As long as she is cool, i'm cool. (PS: Is it weird that I am really really proud that we were featured FRONT PAGE, but also super angry of my incredible stupidity here?)

3. Today was the LAST day that mama bear received chemo before we start this crazy, wacky journey that is the "Autologous Stem Cell Transplant". It almost seems surreal. This abnormal routine has become such a constant fixture in our lives that it almost seems unnatural that we have stopped chemo (hopefully FOREVER AND EVER). Wow, I NEVER thought i'd see the day where I admit stopping chemo seems unnatural. Who would have thought? NOT I!!! Needless to say... Today is a monumental day for us.

4. I found out later on that PEREZ HILTON gave us a shout-out on Twitter, asking all the little monsters to join our cause, personally tweeting GAGA as well! Incase you weren't aware, this guy has a HUGEEEEE following!!! More than 2 MILLION followers on twitter!!! So to get M.A.M. on that kind of platform was BATSHITCRAZY!!!! Within half an hour of his tweet, we had more than 100 members join our group from all over the world! How amazing is that?!?! Little monsters globally uniting for a good cause. It's a beautiful thing. (PS: THANK YOU to whoever let Mr. Hilton aware of our event!!!!!)

5. (This week) I'm JUST getting over the cold (I know, WHO gets sick in the middle of SUMMER?!). It was one of those ones where you start of with a sore throat, then a cough, then fatigue, then faucet nostrils. Thankfully, i'm over that pain in the arse, but I think I might have accidentally gave it to my brother (oops) :( Perfect timing, eh? Well, while we were in treatment today, my mom's white blood cell and neutrophil (which go hand-in-hand usually) count were slightly above the normal range. Upside is, her immune system is working great! Downside, that could have been a sign that her body was creating an immune response to fight off something. NOT.GOOD. We need to get that down a little, which means my brother will probably have to be quarantined for the duration of his cold.

So YEAH! That's pretty much what's been happenin'! Monsters Against Myeloma is kicking into high gear now, so i'll DEFINITELY be updating more on that soon!

Hope everyone is doing well :)

Health, Hope, & Happiness

L

Reach for the Stars

Hi Everyone!

Ok so I just wanted to let you guys know that i'm temporarily putting the Wellness Wednesdays on hiatus. I am barely keeping up with this M.A.M. event with my mom's new little adventure (lets call it that instead of a transplant shall we?) coming up. But I PROMISE it will be up soon. And if I have time, i'll definitely be putting something up :)

Also, just an update. In less than a week, we have more than 400 people who have joined our group!!! Ahhhh that is so incredible! The power of teamwork truly is beautiful and inspiring. We even have people from as far as FRANCE who have joined! And get this, the OPRAH show is now following our twitter account! Can you imagine the amount of awareness we could generate on a platform like that?! The stars are the limit! We're going to conquer the world my friends :)

Monsters Against Myeloma

CALL TO ACTION!

Anyone who knows me well knows that I am an AVID Lady Gaga fan. She is my mother monster and I, her little monster. She is just... incredible. A force to be reckoned with. So, naturally, when word got out that she was having TWO shows in my city, I lost my shit. GONG to the SHOW. I bought tickets, and that was that! However, shortly after we found out that my mom was planned to undergo an Autologous Stem Cell Transplant close to the date of the concert. This kind of procedure reduces your immune system to nil. To give you some perspective, it is shot down to lower than that of a newborn baby's. It takes about 6 months, on average, for a person to fully recover from a stem cell transplant. So, unfortunately, that meant that I had to give up my tickets for the show. Sold-out concerts and jam-packed venues do not bode well for those wanting to avoid germs... As much as I love my mother monster (Gaga), I love my mama bear the most. I love everything about Gaga. Her music, her fierce independence, her love of life and passionate drive. All this is reflected in her body of work, right down to the sequin placed strategically, and unconventionally, on somewhere like her nose. But as much as I love her, I know she will FOR SURE be touring again in the future. I will have more opportunities to see her do what she does best. So instead of giving away the tickets, I thought, why not create something good from something bad? Thus, the birth of "Monsters Against Myeloma", a contest where a pair of floor tickets to Lady Gaga's August 27 show will be donated to the person(s) who can raise the most money for the MMRF (Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation). Multiple myeloma is a cancer not typically of the young. But the tides are changing. I have seen and heard of people being diagnosed in their 40's (like my mom) and 30's, something that would have been unheard of twenty years ago. I figure, with this contest, not only can we raise money for a good cause, but also awareness. We can raise awareness in a demographic that is unfamiliar with this disease. Encourage and inspire others. When people come up to me, upon hearing about my mom, saddened with the news, I make sure they know not to be sad, but to be angry, to rally together and fight for a cure. Although it is saddening, it is also something we should be fiercely angry about. These rising rates of cancer are NOT acceptable, and we need to make sure the right people know that. Through this contest, I am literally trying to save my mom's life. But not only that, also the lives of all the moms and dads and grandparents, and sons and daughters out there so that they might be able to see their children get married, have kids, and live a life worth living. I have included a link at the bottom of this post to our Facebook group page. Please join, even if you do not want to compete in the contest. Please join to inspire and encourage others to join and spread the word. Who knows, maybe even Gaga herself will get word ;) And if you like, please donate to this great cause. Paws up little monsters, paws up.

Monsters Against Myeloma

PS: If you have any ideas in how to further promote this event, PLEASE share them!