Pat's Driving For Donors

Miami Dade Recording Breaking Marrow Drive

2007-04-27T08:11:00.000-05:00

Wow, We hosted a marrow drive on Wednesday in Miami with the Miami Dade Police Department and over 700 people came out and joined the National Marrow Registry! We are going to have to raise more money for tissue typing fees if this keeps up (which we hope it does). We already have 925 donors signed up and we haven't even left Florida yet. Thanks everyone.

Pat did a radio interview this morning with Y100 in Miami and Z100 in NY. He was awesome and I was so proud of him! If you want to listen to the segment, visit www.elvisduran.com. The website got over 500 hits in 30 minutes and people have sent really nice emails. If anyone knows someone in any of the cities we are visiting who may want to be a local sponsor, please let us know!

We leave in 8 days and there is so much to do! The RV isn't finished being wrapped and the city locations aren't finalized in a lot of cities. We will all be working on the road!

National Marrow Drive Kicks off in Tampa!

2007-04-20T16:53:00.000-05:00

Well we have had such technical troubles pointing the blog to our website that I gave up for awhile and didn't publish! It's all figured out now and I'm BACK!

Our new slogan for the RV that is being wrapped is

1 Child, 30 cities, 2007 donors! We have had a busy month raising money, getting ready to go and did I mention that Pat was on ACCESS HOLLYWOOD? He got to go to NY and go to the red carpet Premiere of Reign Over Me with Adam Sandler. He met Adam, Will Smith, Liv Tyler, Howie Mandell among others. His favorite of the bunch was MATZOBALL (sorry Adam) the Bulldog. Adam Sandlers bulldog came to the theatre and Adam had him brought in to spend some time with Pat. If you want to see the Access Hollywood video you can view it at http://video.accesshollywood.com/player/?id=86675

We had our first Marrow Donor drive in Tampa at St. Joseph's Childrens Hospital on Tuesday and had 72 donors register. Today we had a great marrow donor drive today at IADT International Academy of Design and Technology with 64 donors added for a total now of 225.
Only 1783 more donors to go!!

I took my RV drivers class yesterday because I am scared to death of driving the 31 ft RV that was donated! That thing is huge, but I did well and didn't hit anything. I'm off to a good start.

We still need lots of help in our 30 cities!

55 Days to go..

2007-03-11T21:25:00.000-05:00

So much has been happening while we get ready for our drive.

Pat was suppose to have his first maintenance chemo treatment last week (this marks a milestone for us away from 3 days a week chemo to only having 1 chemo treatment a month!) but it was postponed until Tuesday 3/13 because his blood counts weren't good enough. He has been feeling really good and had a great weekend at his dad's house playing with friends. He loves to be with his friends and had a rough time this week worrying about how he would make friends at school next year when he is able to return. He was on Hospital Homebound this year while he got his chemo treatments so he doesn't really know many people around our new house. Pat is scared that his hair won't grow back from chemo and radiation and that the kids will think he is weird. It breaks my heart to hear how scared he is about this when he handled having Cancer and chemo treatments like he could take on the world! I try to tell him how amazing he is and how being different in some ways in what makes us each special. In fact, his hair (or lack of it) is the inspiration for a book he and I are writing called WHERE'S MY HAIR? We noticed how young children 5 - 7 years old are curious about his hair and matter of factly ask him where it is. Older children just stare at him or point and giggle which makes him really sad. We decided that if we could write a book for children which talks about our differences (bald from illness, in a wheelchair, blind or deaf, different skin colors or hair and eyes...) then more children would understand it and not have to stare. Kids have to understand that it is these differences like Pat being bald, or his little brother Tucker, having red hair and freckles (which has caused many a tearful night as well) that make us special.

Pat and I did 2 interviews this week. 1 for a segment in a feature documentary coming out this summer and 1 for a tv news interview that will air next week. Pat is so well spoken and nonchalant about his illness and his drive and I tend to be a blubbering mess when it comes time to talk about the "tough stuff". I mentioned in my first post about how Pat believes that this illness will teach him a lesson and I think this drive is his lesson on the gift he has to help others. Pat's smile or attitude makes others feel good and want to get involved and help. I think he has a gift in connecting to other people and want to make sure that we do everything we can to use his gift well. I tend to cry when speaking about Pat (especially on camera :) ) but know that other people need to hear his message as he really brings light to so many!

This week we got 1 new National Sponsor in Technomarine (thanks to Pat's dads girlfriend Jessica!) and 1 new local Sponsor in Miami which is the PBA or Police Benevolent Association. We also received some other donations and chocolate sale money so we are ever so slowly reaching our goal. We still have local sponsorships for sale in 25 of the cities we are visiting so my next task is trying to publicize those opportunities. Do you know how difficult it is to fax press releases to 30 city newspapers? Pretty time consuming:)

55 Days to go $65,000 to raise

I wish I could publish this properly!

2007-02-22T17:13:00.000-05:00

We are off to a rough start with our Blog. I can't seem to direct the blog to go to the blog page set up on our website www.drivingfordonors.com. To make matters worse, it seems really difficult to contact BLOGGER.COM to get help. I am working on it now because I have so much to tell about whats happening!

Today Pat and I went to Forest Lakes Elementary where they did a fundraiser for us. The students in the Student Council made posters and fliers and asked each class to try to reach a goal of $52 in donations. That is the amount needed to pay for 1 person to be added to the National MArrow Registry. Within 2 weeks the school raised $3179 enough for 61 people to be added! I was so touched because I can't even get Pat's own brothers school to get involved and help us fundraise! The people who do take the time to get involved are so sincere and passionate about helping. I wonder what it is that makes some people so caring and giving?

Thanks Forest Lakes Elementary!

Countdown: 84 days until DRIVING FOR DONORS begins!

2007-02-10T12:05:00.000-05:00

Well, Here is our very first post about the incredible journey we have already been through as well as the one coming up! Let me start at the beginning.

THE DIAGNOSIS

On March 24, 2006 my son, Patrick, then 10 years old was diagnosed with Leukemia. This devastating diagnosis came after a year of painful suffering with what we then thought was Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis! After countless doctor visits, ER trips and specialists in other cities everyone agreed that Pat had arthritis. This child who only 3 months before had been the fastest runner in the fourth grade at The Celebration School in Celebration, Fl was now in a wheelchair unable to walk 1 step. Several long, heartbreaking months later (we really learned firsthand how people with handicaps are treated and looked upon) Pat ended up in the hospital with some strange new symptoms including fever, back ache and test results that didn't make sense.

Pat got sick at his father's house in Davie Florida so he was put into Joe DiMaggios Children's Hospital. When I arrived the doctor took his father and I aside and told us the news that we never expected to hear. She suspected Leukemia. Denial, fear, disbelief and anger followed in those next several hours and days. How do you tell a child that he has cancer? The only thing he knew about cancer was that both his grandparents on my side had died of it before he was even born. The scariest thing I have ever done was to look into his eyes while the doctor told him the diagnosis. Pat is so smart and mature for his age but was filled with fear upon hearing what the doctor said. She told him that it was treatable and they were going to start chemotherapy right away. I was too scared to mention CANCER to Pat or to talk about the possible effects from the chemo treatments. I wanted to let him digest the information and have time to think and process what was happening to him. The next day while Pat and I were alone in the hospital room he turned to me and said something that took away all my fear and is something I will never forget. Pat said "mom, I'm glad this happened to me, I'm glad I got Leukemia it is going to teach me something". I thought he meant he felt he had been bad and deserved this diagnosis! I said "Pat, what do you mean?" He looked at me and said "Having Leukemia is going to teach me something, I don't know what it is yet but I am going to learn something from this, A lesson that I will need to know in my life and this will make me stronger." I knew my son was amazing before he said that but now I was absolutely blown away by his maturity and insight. What a fantastic person this child was who was teaching me to deal with my fear and be stronger!

TREATMENTS

Months of chemotherapy followed as the protocol for his Leukemia is for 1 year of intense chemo and then 2 1/2 years of maintenance chemo. Sometimes we go to St. Joseph's Children's Hospital 3 times a week and spend all day there getting chemo treatments and shots. He needs spinal taps with chemo meds put into his spinal fluids once a month. Chemo "pushes" that make him sick and shots in both legs 3 times a week! Even with all of that we have been really lucky this year and treatment has gone well with very little setbacks. We see some of the other children at the hospital and how bad they are feeling and we do feel blessed for him to be doing so well.

THE GRAND IDEA IS BORN

In July, Pat was in the hospital for a week and he watched a show on TV that changed our lives. There was a 20/20 program about celebrity Entrepreneaur Farrah Gray. At the end of the show they featured his sister, Greek Gray, who had Leukemia and couldn't find a matching marrow donor. We found out that there is a CRITICAL shortage of minorities on the NAtional Marrow Registry and it was hard to find matches for certain ethnic groups. Pat is part Hispanic (dad, William, is from Cuba) and he wanted to know what would happen if he needed a transplant and couldn't find a match? Several weeks later we were back at the hospital for a few days and we found out that Greek Gray had passed away. He was so saddened by this that he said he needed to do something to help! DRIVING FOR DONORS was born. Originally, Pat had the idea for a local marrow drive and then he changed into a National Marrow Drive where he would recruite donors for the National Marrow Registry. He picked up an atlas and with the help of his aunt, Michele Marden, picked his cities and his route (the boy loves maps!) 28 cities later our plan was hatched. Little did we know at that time that we had alot more work to do in front of us!

DRIVING FOR DONORS AND THE NATIONAL MARROW REGISTRY

We came to learn that that in order to join the National Marrow Registy, people have to pay approximately $52 for tissue typing fees to get their cheek swab samples tested. For us to add 2007 new people to the registry we would need to raise over $100,000 in tissue typing fees alone. I thought I was busy taking him to chemo 3 times a week with a husband, Keith, and 3 other children at home (Jocelyn 14, Nathan 12 and Tucker 6) , I hadn't seen anything yet!

SELLING HIS HEAD ON EBAY

Pat's first grand fundraising scheme came when he started to lose his hair from the chemotherapy. He was really sad about losing all that hair and we tried to make it a positive experience. He and I came up with selling advertising space on his bald head on eBay to raise funds for our account with The Marrow Foundation (fundraising arm of the National MArrow Donor Program NMDP). We place the ad on eBay and an overnight sensation was born! Suddenly tv and radio stations were calling for interviews. Who was this 11 year old with the great advertising idea they wanted to know? Unfortunately our eBay ad did not sell and Pat's spirits sank. Why, he asked, would someone pay $10,000 for a ride on a float at a parade in Miami (which he had seen on the news while at his dad's) but no one wanted to pay $5,000 to advertise and actually help him save lives? What was wrong with these people, he asked? We reposted the auction and this time a wonderful thing happened! A company in San Diego, CA called All Road Communications which specializes in satellite phone sales and service, bought the head ad for $5,100. Way to go Pat! and ALL ROAD SAT.COM was now added to his head!

LOOKING FOR THE GOOD PEOPLE OUT THERE TO LEND A HAND

We are still fundraising, trying to sell ads on his head, planning our drive which begins in Tampa Florida on May 5th 2007. Several people and companies are helping and we receive emails from some really amazing people. But we have learned how difficult it is to get people involved in a cause and help out. To give an example, the Associated Press did a story on Pat and released it on the wire. SEveral newspapers and websites picked up the story and ran it all over the country. You know that hundreds of thousands of people read that story and saw those pictures. You know how many people emailed? 4 You want to know how many people donated? 2 And how much? $50 (which we are very grateful for and thank you for donating you 2 wonderful people!). We also learned that when people actually got involved with Pat in one way or another they were committed to the cause and some people went all out to help, sometimes with stunning generosity and unwavering persistence. We are going to have a special posting to give our thanks to them next, so keep watching.

84 days till we begin our drive in Tampa. $85,000 left to raise