06-11-2009 - Write a letter to support a mother who's child is dying from cancer.

My mood while writing this blog: Feeling compelled to do something

Hi Family and Friends, this is Colleen. (I'm hoping this e-mail will get forwarded around a bunch of times, so I wanted to make it more personal.) I'm sending this out to the people who I think would like to be involved with a little project to send letters of support to a mother who's child is dying of cancer. I saw something online today (Fri. Nov. 6th) that touched my heart in a very deep way.

There is a true story going around on the internet about a young boy named Noah Biorkman. You may have heard it by now. He's in the final stages of a two and a half year battle with Neuroblastoma Cancer. The family is celebrating his last Christmas next week and Noah's request is to get lots of Christmas cards from people. If you'd like to send a card to Noah his address is below. Summer colored a card for him today and put stickers all over it. There is also a link below to a video of Noah and his mom, Diana talking about this story on the news. His sweet little face brought tears to my eyes and he has not left my thoughts since I saw it.

I belong to a network of mothers online who have been absolutely wonderful in offering me support while I was pregnant with Summer, and now all of our babies are 19-20 months old, and we're still there for each other, 24 hours a day even, thanks to the internet! This is where I first heard Noah's story. The support we all give to each other there inspired me to get all the mom's and women I know to offer support in Noah's Mother's time of need. I can't even imagine what she is going through right now, I never want to know that kind of pain.

If you'd like to be involved in this project, please e-mail me, Colleen (here at cococana@verizon.net.) a letter of your thoughts, prayers, stories of hope, and words of love and support to Noah's Mom, Diana. I will copy and print out every single letter I receive and I will send them all together in one envelope for their family to read. Hopefully the letters will help get them through this difficult time. If you feel you connect more as a Grandmother, a Father, an Aunt, a Teacher, a Grandfather, a Sibling, a Cousin, a Nurse, a Doctor, or just a friend, then please address your letter to that person in Noah's life. I imagine that this is hard on everyone in his entire family as well as their friends and neighbors and loved ones and his medical team. I'm sure every single one of them could use your kind words and prayers and support. Nothing is more senseless to me than a child who is dying. It's not fair, it doesn't make sense and it just breaks my heart. I don't really know how to help, but I feel compelled to help and I write, so I decided to start there.

PLEASE pass this e-mail around to everyone in your life who might be touched by this story and feel compelled to help by either sending a Christmas card to Noah, sending a support letter to someone in his family or both! I will print out 100 letters if I have to and ship them in a big box! I'll try to keep those who contribute, posted on our little project. Offering words of support to this family is the only way I can think of to help right now. Today is Friday and I'd like to print up the letters and have them ready to mail by Tuesday (Nov 10th). So if you'd like to contribute, do it right now. Send me a quick reply to Noah's Mom before you log off of your computer and get swept away with the busy weekend. It doesn't have to be long, it doesn't have to be this great magical thing, it's ok if you don't know them, I don't know them either, but I feel like I do after watching the video...just a few words of encouragement will be much appreciated I'm sure. I sent this quote to my cousin Suzanne a bit ago and I feels that it applies here too.

"Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person."

Letters to Noah:

Noah Biorkman

1141 Fountain View Circle

South Lyon, Mi

48178

E-mails to Noah's Mom, Diana:

cococana@verizon.net

The video of Noah Biorkman's story:

http://clickondetroit.com/video/21525126/index.html

Here is the link to the article on snopes.com if you are skeptical of sad stories on the internet like I am. It was updated on the 4th.

http://snopes.com/inboxer/medical/biorkman.asp

Sincerely and with much love,

Colleen Canavan

Mother to 19 month old Summer Rainbow. The light of my life.

(collsbaby on the IAP board)

P.S. Sorry this is so wordy. Those of you who know me are well aware of my wordiness! ;-)