How many flea bites does it take to kill NET cancer?
Sometimes I feel like a flea trying to kill an elephant. The problem of NET cancer seems so big and what we can bring to bear on it seems so small.
How many flea-bites does it take to bring down an elephant?
Every flea plays its part.
Today a small piece of magic happened–not a big enough piece to kill an elephant with–but enough to keep the flea trying.
I sent off a check to Dana-Farber today. Normally I would will have waited another couple of months. But someone was offering a two-for-one match that would triple the impact of what I could do.
Twenty-two months, $100,000
With that match, our efforts over the last nearly 22 months will have generated over $100,000 for the fight against cancer–the lion’s share of it going to the fight against NET cancer in particular. We could not have done this without the help of all the people who have answered the calls we have put out over the months since Jane died. It started with those who donated to Dana-Farber in Jane’s memory after her death. It continued with all those who helped us build our Walking with Jane team for the Greater Taunton and Greater Fall River Relays for Life and those who supported our first Marathon Walk just over a year ago.
It started with those who donated…
Then there was the group that put together the team for Bridgewater State’s Relay for Life and the continuing efforts of those who worked with us on the Greater Fall River Relay in June and this year’s Marathon Walk completed just three weeks ago Sunday. There were the former students who designed and built this website and the others who designed our logo and our t-shirts and our jewelry and wrote our newspaper articles. There are the friends who have loaned us their houses and given us their ideas. There are the people from the American Cancer Society, from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, from the Caring for Carcinoid Foundation, from the Carcinoid Cancer Foundation, and the dozen other groups and organizations who have invited us into this community none of us wish needed to exist. There are all the people who have walked with us around a track or on the long trek into Boston.
Annoying NET cancer
We have inflicted 100,000 flea-bites on this elephant. It has not yet been enough to even annoy the beast. It will take millions more to do that–likely billions before we can bring cancer to its knees.
But we have made a beginning. There are others in this fight–others who have been at this far longer and have bitten the elephant many more times than we have. That does not detract from the small accomplishments of this newest flea–only reminds us that we are not alone in this fight. It does not matter which of us delivers the fatal kiss–none of us will know which bite killed NET cancer, killed cancer in general–and it really does not matter to me. I just know I want NET cancer dead. I just know that I want all these cancers to die.
…a small piece of magic happened…
Every dollar brings us one step closer to that goal. Every idea brings us one step closer to that goal. Every piece of evidence brings us one step closer to that goal. Every piece of research brings us one step closer to that goal.
Every flea plays its part.
In the end, NET cancer dies.
