Late Christmas Update!!!

Well let me start by saying I'm sorry for having not up dated you on what happened over Christmas, New Years, MLK Day, Ground Hogs Day, Presidents Day, Valentines Day, any other obscure holiday that has happened over the last 3 months but between illness and busyness I didn't have many opportunities to do so.


We delivered your Christmas contributions to the family the Wednesday before Christmas. All the kids we well taken care of with essentially a whole new winter wardrobe, winter coats, PJ's, and shoes. All the kids received at least two nice toys as well. We were able to provide Kelli with the items that she had requested as well which we hope allow her to enjoy the long walks she loves so much. The rest of your donations went to restaurant gift cards for the family. Our final donation was a last minute surprise but McKinney Dodge provided a brand new set of tires for the family car!

I would like to thank everyone who participated and helped us help Kelli and her family. I would like to also note the businesses that have helped us along the way.

The Howard Firm http://howardlawgville.com/
Tropical Chicken Grille www.facebook.com/TropicalChickenGrillSC
Fried Green Tomatoes http://southernfriedgreentomatoes.com/
Tony's Pizza http://www.tonyspizzaandsubssc.com
McKinney Dodge www.mckinneydodge.com/

We have been so busy with our personal lives that we haven’t had the opportunity to help others the way that we need to. If you’re willing and able please send your donations to continue to help families in need.

Please show your support with Chemo Ninja Shirts go to www.zazzle.com/chemoninjastore

WE NEED YOUR HELP!!!!

I am writing to update you on some exciting progress with Chemo Ninja. At some point or another, you have been supportive of my desire to create an organization that assists people currently battling cancer. You may have purchased a shirt or just been on the long list of people who I've talked with about it and what I hope to accomplish through this ministry. As most of you know, Chemo Ninja comes straight from my heart. My battle with cancer would have been financially devastating without the support of family and friends who loved us and were caring enough to give freely in our time of need. It is my intense desire to not forget the many difficulties faced at a time like that, and how it affects not just your medical bills, but medication costs, childcare expenses, loss of income, travel for medical care, etc. Christmas makes this even more challenging to these families. We have finally begun moving forward with the progam and I am looking to see who among you is willing to offer assistance to a family in need at this holiday season.

We are currently working in conjuntion with Let There Be Mom - www.lettherebemom.org - and they have found a local family that is battling cancer and in need of our assistance. How much we are able to help will depend on you! Kelli Rogers is a 25 year old leukemia fighter, and 3 weeks ago she received a bone marrow transplant from her brother. She is currently being treated in Charleston, SC and will be there during most of her treatment and recovery/100 days of isolation.

Kelli is a single mom who has recently started living back at home with her parents due to her illness. Kelli has a 5 year old daughter, who is lucky enough to have two older playmates in her cousins, 8 and 9 that are also living with Kelli's parents who are retired. Needless to say everyone is in a tough situation when throwing a battle with cancer into the mix. Kelli's mother is in Charleston helping take care of Kelli, while her father is here in Greenville making sure the kids are taken care of, getting them to school and taking care of their daily needs.

What we're asking is for you and hopefully your office's willingness to help provide various things for Kelli and the 3 children. There are definate needs that we would like to meet, and we would also like to help the family have Christmas as well. If you're willing to help, please respond to this email as soon as possible so that we can identify the needs that the family has (ie. clothing, food, care expenses), who can help and how. Here are the ways that you can help:

a- Sponsor a child's christmas (clothes, toys, etc)
b- Sponsor Kelli's christmas
c- contribute small gift cards to chain restaurants to help provide meals for Kelli and her mom while they are in Charleston for her recovery/isolation period
d- provide funds and/or gift card for some auto care expenses the family is facing

I know that helping others dealing with cancer is a mission that has been laid on my heart. I hope that you share this with as many people as possible and we are able to truly make this battle a winning fight. I would like to have all materials and funds in no later than December 15th. Thank you for your help in this mission. We will be filing our nonprofit paperwork soon, but unfortunately have not made it in time for this event, so current contributions will not be tax deductible. Thank you, in advance, for your willingness to contribute in some way!

Brian Bogle

Our Sponsor Family! Help us Help them!

I've been in communication with Let There Be Mom and they've helped us find a family to sponsor for this Christmas!  The Rogers family is who we'll be helping and I'm looking forward to seeing what we can do for them.  Kelli Rogers is a 25 year old leukemia fighter, and 2 weeks ago she received a bone marrow transplant from her brother.  She is currently being treated in Charleston, SC and will be there during most of her treatment and recovery/100 days of isolation.
 
Kelli is a single mom who has recently started living back at home with her parents due to her illness.  Kelli has a 5 year old daughter, who is lucky enough to have two older playmates in her cousins 8 and 9 that are also living with Kelli's parents who are retired.  Needless to say everyone is in a tough situation when throwing a battle with cancer into the mix.  Kelli's mother is in Charleston helping take care of Kelli while her father is here in Greenville making sure the kids are taken care, getting them to school and taking care of their daily needs. 

We're waiting on a some information back from Kelli and her family on how and where we can help the most.  We know that there will be some basic needs that will need to be met for the kids as they are still young and growing.  But we also know that Christmas is right around the corner and we want to help them have a memorable in a good way Christmas.  I'll be listing specific things we will be needing as we get them.  In the mean time if you are willing to contribute by means of money or gift cards that we can put towards helping the family for Christmas.  I know that clothing will be needed for the kids and for Kelli and I'll list their sizes when I have them all. 

You can donate through the donate tab to the right of the screen or you can send checks or Gift cards to:
CNCA
33 Crossvine Way
Simpsonville, SC 29680

or you can call me if you have questions: 864-907-8371

Please help us help this family. 

Check It Out!

Well I got my shirt in the mail the other day thought I would share it with you. 

I've been playing phone tag with a few groups that would lead us to a family to help.  Hopefully after we develope relationships with some of these groups, helping won't be so hard.  I will let you know more when I do. 

Waiting on the Doctors office.

So I've spoken with the Doctors at the Cancer Centers where I was treated.  They've recently been purchased by the local mega hospital, so getting approval and patient information is a little more difficult.  I will call again tomorrow and see if I can get a name for some one to help.  If we are still coming up with nothing I'm going to look into some of the local churches and see if we can find a family to assist through there. 

Other news:  I spent 3 days at Greenville Memorial Hospital this weekend.  My wife had some pain in her right side and that we later discovered to be gall stones.  She had one lodged in a bile duct that was causing her a great amount of pain while also backing up into her liver.  Luckily the doctors recognized her condition being sever and they bumped her up to the front of the line.  Long story short, she had 2 different procedures in a 5 hour stretch.  She's recovering nicely.  A little sore, but otherwise doing well.  To those that have been praying for her and wishing well we thank you!

I'll keep you up to date on when and what is going on with the family we sponsor.

Finally!!!

Well after 8 years 3 months and one day from my original diagnosis of Testicular Cancer I am officially CANCER FREE!  This is the first time I'm announcing this to more than just a few close friends.  To be honest it feels really good, surprising though it doesn't feel as good as I thought it would.  I don't know if it just hasn't hit me yet or what.  I had a hard time talking to my wife yesterday without crying.  I've been a huge ball of emotion for the past week or so.  I'd watch something on TV that should have had a tag line to it like, "Cheesy proposal", "sweet soldier welcome", or a Folgers commercial and I'd tear up.  I've been waiting for this day for so long and now that it's here I guess I wish I felt more happy excited than I do.  Right now I'm dealing with a more understated relief.  I know much of what I just wrote seems to contradict itself but it really is how I feel; one huge contradiction. 

I wil be purchasing one of my own shirts from my Chemo Ninja Store, Smile I'm Cancer Free is the shirt I'll be picking up.  I'll post a picture of myself in it when it comes in. 

I'm excited to see where life will go from here, it seems like a little bit of a new beginning being that I no longer have cancer hanging over my head.  I've already started eating better, and I'm trying to get back into the gym.  I was going to try and do a weight loss a thon but I didn't want to call out people to do that.  But I'll keep you posted on my progress. 

Other news is that I spoke with my oncologist yesterday and we're working on finding a family to sponsor for this Christmas.  Once I have the information on who we'll be helping I'll release more details.  Ideally they won't know that we're helping until I can present them with a gift card to cover Christmas for them. So please stay tuned, as a minimum I'd like to see us raise $1000 for the family.  Please contact me if you're interested in helping.

Thanks so much for your support and horray for me for being Cancer Free!

Chemo Ninja Cancer Assassain Softball

Well it's official we have a Softball team, with Jerseys and everything.  We are sponsored by the Howard Law Firm as our primary sponsor on our Jersey and our banner.  We are also sponsored by the Tropical Chicken Grill, you can find links for both of those places on my previous post, please check them out!  Our first game as Chemo Ninja wasn't an overwhelming success but we did show signs of greatness.  I hope we can continue to improve. 

I'll continue to post and let you know how our season goes.  Our larger hope with the Chemo Ninja team is to bring more attention to the cause and what we hope to do.  Again our hope is to raise money to help families that are battling cancer, and help with some of the financial issues they are facing.  I go this month for my 5 year check up.  My lab visit is this Friday, my CT is next Tuesday and then my Doctors visit is the 23rd.  Assuming everying checks out I'll be considered Cancer FREE!!  I can't wait for that day. 

When I visit the Doctor I will see if there is a family I can help in some way.  I don't know how much information they will release if any at all.  I think worst case senario we can find one family and at least raise enough to make Christmas a little more enjoyable.  As soon as I figure out how to work a paypal account on here I'll have it available for donations.  In the mean time please feel free to send money directly to us.  33 Crossvine Way  Simpsonville, SC 29680.

I have another planned on fund raiser coming up but I will be working out some things before I announce it so please stay tuned.  Until then here are some better shots of the jerseys!