“Acute Bi-Lineage Leukemia,” which has characteristics of two different kinds of leukemia.
We’ve known for a few weeks that this journey will include at least another 45-to-60 day stay in the hospital and we’ll need a DNA match donor to save her life. Someone out in the world walking around – probably a perfect stranger – has bone marrow flowing through him or her that will save Jenn’s life.
And this is where you – our friends, family and loved ones – come into play in our story.
Many have written, not just with well wishes or gifts or cards, but asking the same question over and over again:
“What can I do to help? Is there anything at all I can do?”
As kind as many have been with gifts of all shapes and sizes and love over the past month – we literally have four boxes of stuff and don’t really need any more tangible gifts – what we’d really love for you to do is to get “swabbed” and become a registered member of the bone marrow donor bank so that you might be able to save someone’s life in the future.
WNST is also here to help you do that over the next month at any of a number of events with Ravens players in May and June.
Jenn needs a “perfect match” somewhere in the world and we’re committed to finding that special person the way that Erik, Michele and many others have over the years. I took my mother to Easter dinner at Al’s Seafood in Essex only to find out that day that Big Al had a bone marrow transplant at Johns Hopkins in 2003. He was lucky. He had a sibling who was a perfect match.
Jenn doesn’t have a perfect match in her family so we need to appeal to the rest of the world.
They’ve told us that Jenn has three matches in the worldwide registry. Right now, we only know of three people on the planet who can save her life and we’re not even sure that they’ve been located or are willing to take a needle to save her life.
I wish that number were 4 or 5 or 100.
As we navigate this path, it’s incumbent upon us to pay it forward and the only thing we can do as we search for her “hero” is to find more future heroes for more people like Jenn in the years to come.
We’ve put together a series of events (presented by Freedmont Mortgage and KELLY and brought to you by First Mariner Bank) with players from the Baltimore Ravens over the next two months to allow you to see a great radio show, learn more about bone marrow transplants and being a donor, meet a cool player and – most importantly – get swabbed so you’re “on the list.”
The Baltimore Ravens have agreed to allow There Goes My Hero to swab fans at their big Draft Night spectacular next Thursday. This will put you into the registry to save lives now and in the future. You’re probably not Jenn’s perfect match – but you might be – or you might get the call somewhere down the life to save the life of someone else.
As much as we give worship to “heroes” in sports, this is real life. Yes, YOU can be a hero but you need to be swabbed and we’re here to help.
Beginning this Tuesday with Todd Heap at Adams Jeep in Aberdeen, we’ll be putting together events at WNST.net & AM 1570 and using our media platform to help save lives in the future. I was very inspired to see of the work that Mike Peters of The Alarm is doing with www.lovehopestrength.org and we’d love to have a scoreboard of matches and lives saved in the future with www.theregoesmyhero.org, which is locally operated and built by survivors of this disease. There Goes My Hero is a small organization but we’re going to make it grow. I’m personally committed to using all of my resources to make that happen because these people have reached to me to try to save my wife’s life.
It doesn’t get any more profound than that…
We’re honored to work with such a noble, inspirational, miraculous group of people in the efforts to save my wife’s life in the coming months.
Here’s a list of the current events we have planned:
Tuesday April 29th at 7PM: Todd Heap at Adams Jeep of Aberdeen. ($25/autograph ticket, goes to There Goes My Hero)
Tuesday May 6th at 7:30PM: Eugene Monroe at Adams Jeep of Aberdeen. ($25/autograph ticket, goes to There Goes My Hero)
Wednesday May 7th at 8PM: Dennis Pitta at Padonia Ale House ($10/autograph ticket, goes to There Goes My Hero)
Thursday, May 8th (6-11PM): Baltimore Ravens official team party at stadium
Tuesday May 13th at 7:30PM: Brian Billick at Buffalo Wild Wings Bel Air
There will be more announcements next week regarding
