Break Your Fear!

"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less."

- Marie Curie

There are many fearful these days, and rightfully so. There is nothing more frightening than the unknown. A few weeks ago I received the following email from Cameron Von St. James.

Cameron wrote:

"Eight years ago, my wife Heather was diagnosed with mesothelioma; a rare cancer that kills most people within 2 years of diagnosis. She had just given birth to our daughter Lily, and was only given 15 months to live. After a life saving surgery that included the removal of her left lung, LungLeavin’ Day was born. On February 2nd, we celebrated 8 years of Heather being cancer free.

The purpose of LungLeavin’ Day is to encourage others to face their fears! Each year, we gather around a fire in our backyard with our friends and family, write our biggest fears on a plate and smash them into the fire. We celebrate for those who are no longer with us, for those who continue to fight, for those who are currently going through a tough time in their life, and most importantly, we celebrate life!

This year, we asked bloggers to take part and spread the word about LungLeavin’ Day. We created an interactive page mesothelioma.com/heather/lungleavinday that tells the full story of our special day. Although the day has passed, we hope you will still check it out and share it on your blog. It would mean so much to Heather and I. Let me know what you think."

Cancer is a huge fear.  My friend Ryan Lock has been sitting bedside with his younger cousin, Ellis, age 15, who was diagnosed with Leukemia.  Not only did Ryan provide emotional support, but he took action and created a trust for teenage cancer patients. 

I mailed some of my favorite books to Ellis

Ryan says, 

"The trust is set up to fund activities, entertainment, TV's, games consoles, trips, tickets to see live concerts ryc for teenagers who are suffering. It is aimed to try help the teenage patient not lose out on any of his/her teenage years and try keep a sense of "normally" to their lives while they under go such treatment. It also helps the parents financially too for extra little bit of help for things that will be needed when the teenagers go home: public transport funds etc. It is also a cancer research charity, too, so donations go directly to help find a cure. It is a generic charity, so what I meant by that is that if anyone donates Ellis and his mum will not receive the money direct for them, but more so it will go to the charity that is helping him.

Basically all funding for health care is free anyway with out government, this charity fills in the gaps to accommodate for a teenagers life, if that makes sense.

They are so good, they take the teenagers to concerts of major music artists, they have a salon owner come in and set up each Wednesday to give free beautician, hypnosis and massage therapy to the kids and their family, they invite bands to play at the hospitals... and so on. It's amazing what they do."

Check out the Teenage Cancer Trust

And 

Break a Plate with your Fear

Sometimes our fears get the best of us. But when we can face them head on, and survive, they give us the greatest strength, and we emerge into the world where nothing is impossible! 

Enjoy the journey!

XO Karlene