BE BRAVE

Never never never never in a million years did I ever think that The Leukaemia Foundations Worlds Greatest Shave would mean anything to me other than a feel good charity event. 

Never ever did I imagine that my daughter, my family or I would ever know, care and love someone with leukaemia. Its what other families have. Not people we know, not people we love. 

But here we are. My baby has leukaemia and she has no hair. And every single day we are reminded of that. There is no hiding when you are bald. It is a red flag that the world sees and screams "I have cancer" "I am sick" "I could die"

It's confronting. It's scary. It's frustrating. It's heartbreaking.

I can't fix her. You can't fix her. The doctors are doing their bloody best to fix her. We are lucky. Maybs is expected to recover and go on to life a happy 'normal' life. Others not so. 

The Leukaemia Foundation do an amazing job. There's a huge amount of information about them on their site. I had always known they were leaders in providing funding for research, information and education but had no idea just what they can do.

Practical help with bills, fuel and food vouchers - unlike centrelink that wont look at individual situations, only numbers...

Transport to and from appointments and treatments - very handy if your too tired to drive to another appointment!

Accommodation - priceless!

And emotional support and counselling - nothing like talking to someone that gets it and is not afraid to talk about the hard stuff.

And the list goes on and on

The Worlds Greatest Shave is 3 weeks away. So this year, support those that are being brave. Like my gorgeous cousin and beautiful friend and her children 13, 11 and 9. All willing to brave the world with no hair to show their love and support for families like us. Anything over $2 is tax deductible. And every dollar counts :)

Please feel free to blog, tweet, facebook or whatever else people do these days to get the message out. The more that know, the more money we can raise and the better support the Leukaemia Foundation can give to families like us xox 

Donate life

Most of you know or read Ms Curly Pops blog. And if you don't, you should. Not only is she a very lovely, talented lady but Ms Pops is very talented, lovely AND waiting for a double lung transplant. True story.

I'm a donor. So are the kids. Even manpet too. In fact my whole extended family are. And if I am even in a room where a decision needs to be made my answer will always be yes.

I know 2 people waiting for organs. One, Ms Pops and the other a 7yr boy that was from Darwin but because they don't do transplants in the NT he and his family have had to move to Melbourne. While we are lucky enough to not need organs, Maybs does require lots and lots and lots of blood transfusions. I know how incredibly grateful we are for every one of those that keeps her alive. We often talk about how amazing it is that people take the time out of their day to donate blood, we wonder who they are, what they do. I'm guessing finally getting the organ you need is like that only 100 time bigger. They and they're family have literally saved your life. If blows my mind that people choose not to donate. Why would you not want to save someones life?

So. Tell me. Are you an organ donor? And have you had a chat with those around you? Do they know you are? Because they have the final say.