CBS bladder cancer story

Doug and I were happy to see ANYTHING on the national news about bladder cancer! Thanks for letting us know that it was going to be on. We had a house full of company....my brother kept an eye and told us when to run into the room to watch it. It was short, but it is a start.

Anita

Diesel we are always careful to let people know that this site is free and a no guilt zone. We all do what we can do even from a bed someone can spread the word or drop off flyers when they go to the doctor. When I was going through treatment and surgery we took a second morgage on our house and we were lucky we could do it. Even if you have good insurance there are so many costs that are not covered that it has to be hard for almost anyone facing any type of bladder cancer dx. I have always been careful to not say anything about raising money on the site because I feel that this is not the place for it. But it has came to my attention that many people think we get our money form the American Cancer Society or drug companies and that is not true. About a year ago I got an email from one of our users telling me that they had given a donation to the ACS because of the work we do here they were one of the people that had been helped a great deal by our site. They went on to tell me that they were doing the relay for life. These are the people that I am trying to reach. Keep doing what you do it is worth much more than money. The words of support shared here can not be brought nor can a price be put on them.

I am going to ask the Website Advisory Team to help us redesign our flyer and take a look at our rack card. And we will be adding a form on the site that will allow you to order rack cards for to drop off. If we had our way there would be a hand out in every doctors office and cancer center in the USA. Again money is our anchor

The ABLCS has worked hard to get to this place for over four years. Our first priority has been to provide a place where survivors and the people who care about them have a place to come for solid information so they could make informed decisions and peer support. We are in the final stages of bring online what we hope will be the best support site on the internet. And if it isn't we will just keep working until it is. We wish it could have been sooner but our pacing factor is always money.

As far as getting the word out we know what needs to be done and there are grass roots ways we will be pursuing but the truth of the matter what needs to be done needs money. It is not for lack of will that our work has not gone further. We all want every person to know the signs of bladder cancer and to take them seriously.

What we need is for every person that knows about bladder cancer to tell everyone who they care about the signs and symptoms and then make that person to promise to tell everyone they care about and on and on.

The sad fact is that a great deal of the money that supports the ABLCS is from peoples memorial gifts. Our goal is that the day will come where the money comes from people that support this cause because they never had that memorial. A yard sale, house party or by telling Aunt Flo that no you don't really need a new sweater to give a donation will get us a step closer. Lives’ can be saved and lives can be changed.

None of us asked to have this to drop into our lives but with it comes the awareness that much has to be done. Not all of us can raise funds but we can tell any person who will listen about bladder cancer. We all can do something and once we do you will hear about bladder cancer everywhere. Personally I think it is time for us to make a lot of noise.

If you look under the primary topics at the heading of the pages of our web site, under HOPE, is "Awareness Flyer." This is available for individuals to print and distribute...and I believe that Cynthia is getting some printed professionally. HOWEVER, it is expensive to do this in bulk and the $$$$$ are hard to come by.

I wonder what someone with no previous exposure to the topic of bladder cancer thought of the presentation? What did they get out of it? Hard to know. We are too close to it to have any idea!

Sara Anne