Why I work so hard...one...

Jen's survivorship story


Last summer, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) flew me and Calen to Florida to speak at their School & Youth national conference. We had raised over $46,000 for the LLS during the just-finished school year, and they wanted us to meet with and speak to some of the other campaign coordinators of the other top fund-raising schools around the nation.

During the conference, they also brought in a local doctor and leukemia researcher who spoke about his research and his hopes for the future of treatments for blood cancers. While he was in medical school, he said, most of his colleagues were curious as to why he would choose to specialize in the field of oncology in which so many of his treatments would fail and so many of his patients would die. He told his friends then - and the assembled LLS employees and volunteers last summer...

Impact of leukemia on families (part 1)


...that if a person walks into a doctor's office and is diagnosed with a case of strep throat, they are given a prescription to take a pill a day for the next seven days, and they leave the office knowing that with very little suffering, very little work, and very little pain, they will be better quickly, safely, and reliably.

And within the past five years, the first treatment of that kind - a simple prescription for a few pills leading to quick, safe, reliable, and pain-free relief - has become available for leukemia. As of then - and I assume today - such an easy cure is only available for a single type of leukemia, but even that one cure would not be available if it weren't for the doctors who were funded by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Impact of leukemia on families (part 2)


Three years ago, Lori Reckers spoke to a number of Princeton students and teachers about her last three years treating her then four-year-old daughter Jennifer for lymphoma. She related a story of having to watch as four and doctors held her daughter's infant arms and legs, stretching her flat on her stomach on an examination table, restraining her while she screamed in pain as the doctors took a spinal tap, a treatment necessary to see if Jennifer would be a candidate for a bone marrow transplant.

She had to assure her daughter that the pain would eventually end, that the hurt would eventually be worth it, and that the doctors had to do what they were doing to help her get better.

I work so that in the future, no mothers will ever have to tell their daughters that.

So that all they will ever have to do is go to their local pharmacy and pick up a prescription.

So those no more daughters - or sons - will have cry out in pain or suffer the indignities and pain that come from chemotherapy.

And I work so that I can teach my students the value of helping others.

If you can, please take a moment and make a donation to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. You can donate via our campaign by going to this website and choosing the Make a donation option.

You can also send us a check at the following address...

Lonnie Dusch
Princeton High School
11080 Chester Rd
Cincinnati, OH 45246

If you're a little cash poor right now, then give the Society your time. Collect on your dorm floor...ask your neighbors for donations...contact your local LLS chapter and see what you can do to help out...sign yourself and your friends - or sports team - up for our 5K...find a school in your area that participates in the Pasta for Pennies or Pennies for Patients program and make a donation through them...

Just give something.

It's too important not to.