Love Harder

Our friend Brandy is a bril­liant writer, a won­der­ful teacher, and a gen­er­ous friend.  And she is in love with a man who has just been diag­nosed with mul­ti­ple myeloma.

We are rais­ing money for the Mul­ti­ple Myeloma Research Fund in his name.  For the price of a cin­na­mon dolce latte, half-caf, hold the whip, you can be part of an effort to cure a dis­ease that affects approx­i­mately 750,000 peo­ple worldwide.

http://www.loveharder.org

Every dol­lar brings us a dol­lar closer to a cure.  And every dona­tion brings a sliver of hope to a girl who needs all the hope she can get.

Love Harder,
Caitlin G. (lifeofme.org)

What You Can Do

• Give. Be part of a world­wide effort to cure a dis­ease that affects approx­i­mately 750,000 peo­ple world­wide.  Every dol­lar helps.
• Pass it on. For­ward this story to five peo­ple.  Share this blog post.  Become our fan on Facebook.
• Love harder. Life is short, love is unbend­ing, and no one knows what could hap­pen next. Tell some­one you love them today.

Where Your Money Goes

• The Amer­i­can Insti­tute of Phil­an­thropy recently named The Mul­ti­ple Myeloma Research Foun­da­tion one of the best orga­ni­za­tions to give to in terms of their account­abil­ity and use of resources.
• By work­ing closely with researchers, clin­i­cians and part­ners in the biotech and phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal indus­try, the MMRF has helped bring mul­ti­ple myeloma patients four new treat­ments that are extend­ing lives around the globe.
• The MMRF has advanced twenty Phase I and Phase II clin­i­cal tri­als. They need your sup­port to advance these clin­i­cal research pro­grams and accel­er­ate the devel­op­ment of bet­ter, more effec­tive treat­ments.
• The MMRF’s Mul­ti­ple Myeloma Genomics Ini­tia­tive recently became the first to sequence the mul­ti­ple myeloma whole genome in its entirety.
• A whop­ping 98% of your dona­tion to the MMRF will be used imme­di­ately to sup­port high-priority mul­ti­ple myeloma research.
• With dimin­ish­ing fund­ing for early stage drug devel­op­ment and the next myeloma treat­ments not expected to be approved until 2011, the MMRF des­per­ately needs your help.

Brandy’s Story (if you already posted this, you can just link to your orig­i­nal post)

My name is Brandy. And I have a blog.

And a plea.

I use my blog to show­case the crazy I meet every­day, share the sto­ries of the kids I teach, and doc­u­ment my love for tequila, dairy prod­ucts and the abdom­i­nal mus­cles of Ryan Reynolds.

Rarely do I talk about per­sonal issues on my blog– as per­sonal as the dude that I adore. But I need your help. And it involves my dude.

He’s a guy who made math comics for my class, so they would love learn­ing about addi­tion. He’s the guy who sends my friends gift cards when they are hav­ing hard times, who remem­bers every story I ever told him, who was the first per­son I cel­e­brated with when I got a teach­ing job.

He’s the guy who sent flow­ers to me at school– dozens of my favourite pink roses just because he loves me. He’s a guy who has spent a year patiently explain­ing (and re-explaining) every­thing there is to know about foot­ball dur­ing the impor­tant games when silence is preferred.

He’s made me word puz­zles and comics and stayed up late play­ing Scrab­ble with me (even though I beat him almost every time). He’s lis­tened to me cry about school and fam­ily and jobs. He is every­thing I never knew I needed and every­thing I always knew I wanted.

I real­ize this all sounds dra­matic, a Life­time movie in the mak­ing– but this is life. Right now. And I’m throw­ing away any hint of ego and am humbly ask­ing for you to pray or think kind thoughts. If you are able to pass this on, thank you.

This isn’t a call for sym­pa­thy or a plea for pity. It’s just one girl hop­ing you can think pos­i­tive thoughts for the per­son she adores. If my cur­rent heartache pro­vides you with any­thing, let it be the reminder that life is short, love is unbend­ing and no one knows what could hap­pen next.

Thank you for read­ing this, and if you haven’t already? Please tell some­one you love them today.

I did.

DONATE: http://www.loveharder.org
CONTACT: theloveharderfund@gmail.com
FACEBOOK: http://facebook.loveharder.org
MORE INFO: http://www.themmrf.org