http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44090512/ns/health-cancer/

http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/08/t-cells/

While these are indeed exciting findings, we should bear in mind that these are very preliminary results – this was a Phase I trial involving only three patients. But we should all keep our fingers crossed that these results will continue with the Phase II trial!

LLS has played a vital role in advancing the critical work of Dr. June and all of the members of his team with an investment totaling nearly $15 million. LLS has funded Dr. June in various capacities since 1998, and other members of his team began receiving LLS funding as far back as 1992. Our funding has afforded June’s team the opportunity to pursue this innovative approach to treating patients with blood cancers.

This is exciting news on a national level, but even just here in Hawaii the funds we are raising are making a difference! A researcher in Hawaii has recently been approved for a $500,000 grant over a 5 year period. This is exciting news for our local chapter – we raise enough to help fund this important research and as you can see, new studies and treatments are being developed all the time. Techniques developed in Leukemia research frequently are used for treating other types of cancers as well.

So you are making a difference! MAHALO!!! =)

If you haven’t made a donation and would like to, please visit my webpage here or visit my page on current and upcoming fundraisers for more ways you can help!

From the article:

..one race, in particular, has a deep, personal meaning for him. It’s the Mango Days 5K race coming up on August 7, a benefit for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS).

This one is run in honor of Kit’s daughter, Patty, who died in June 1981, from malignant non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. A Punahou graduate, Patty had just started her freshman year at Stanford University when she lost her battle with cancer.

As an aspiring writer, Patty had kept a journal up until the time of her death. Kit and his wife, Margie, compiled these journal entries and published Patty’s “Mango Days” in 1993 — a painful, yet uplifting account of a teenager battling for her life.

“In 2003, the Mango Days 5K race was started by Neil Voje, a runner in our Team in Training program, who had read the book, and was inspired to create a fundraiser for the Society,” explained Jen McVeay, Hawaii branch director of LLS.

According to Kit, Patty was not among the fastest runners, but she had a passion for the sport. At age 17, she ran the Honolulu Marathon, not knowing at the time that she had been running with at least two tumors and would be diagnosed about three months later.

You can read by clicking here. And sign up for the Mango Days 5K here.

A very special friend of mine who is a young mother of three needs our help quickly. She needs a bone marrow transplant ideally from someone who is 50% Japanese/50% Chinese. Her name is Barbie Ho (her husband is Keahi Tucker) and she has an agressive form of Leukemia. Please forward this email to as many people as possible, especially if they are the right nationality. If you are willing to be tested please contact Kinau at 808-753-2374 or kinauh@hawaii.rr.com, Barbie and Keahi will pay for the blood test and any medical expenses. It’s just a blood test and then if it is a match it is a simple process (not a hospital stay).

UPDATE: There will be a bone marrow drive tomorrow (7/13). 7:30am to 3:30pm @ Starbucks Ward Ave. Testing is as easy as swiping a cotton swab inside your mouth. Please spread the word.

>> Click here for information from the national bone marrow registry.

If you’d like to help, please feel free to make a donation online at http://tinyurl.com/malia-TNT2011 or visit the Current and Upcoming Fundraisers link at the top of the page for ways you can help, including signing up to help at a running event, turning in your loose change at a Coinstar machine, or purchasing Macy’s Shop For a Cause tickets! Thanks for the encouragement! =)

Here are the races, dates and times that we need volunteers:

• Sun, August 14, 5am to 8am – ING Direct Norman Tamanaha 15K – in Honolulu
• Sun, September 4, 5am to 9am – Runner’s HI 20K – in Kapolei
• Sun, October 2, 4:30am to 9:30am – ING Direct 25K – in Kailua
• Sun, October 23, 4am to 9:30am – PF Chang’s 30K – in Honolulu
• November 6, 4:30am to 9am – Val Nolasco Half Marathon – in Honolulu

Working at an aid station is actually a really exciting way to participate in these races. You’ll help pass out water and sports drink to runners passing by and help cheer them on! You also receive a t-shirt in exchange for your time. Please let me know if you’d like to help!

Want to help raise $ for the Leukemia Society and get a little something for yourself in return? For a $5 donation, I’m selling tickets for this year’s Macy’s Shop for a Cause event which takes place on Saturday, August 27th. (This is good for Macy’s stores nationwide, not just Hawaii!)

For your $5 donation, you get 25% off on regular, sale and clearance merchandise throughout the store, even on brands that are usually excluded from sales. (The exception is 10% off on electronics, furniture, matresses, and rug/floor coverings.) And, you will also be eligible to win a $500 gift card, no purchase necessary!

If you would like to purchase a ticket, please email me at maliayosh@gmail.com and let me know where to send it or how to get it to you. You can mail me a check and I can send you the tickets right away! If you have friends, family, or coworkers who would like a ticket please let me know how many to send.

THANK YOU!

Last year, I lost my friend John Kark to his second battle with Leukemia in April. In his honor, and with your help, I was able to complete my half marathon, even though I was in pain from a knee injury. It was the first year I didn’t have friends running the race with me in a few years, and I remember at one point being on the huge downhill stretch after mile 10 and just thinking of John and his fighting spirit. It was a really, really cold race this year and that part is where you come up onto the great highway and the sea breeze hits. I shivered in my arm warmers and I was generally pretty miserable. But something inside of me clicked when I thought of John and what he would say to me if he could coach me through that tough part of my race. I slowly picked up my pace and was able to finish strong. I truly felt like he was with me there at that finish line. It was a great day!

Looking back on last year, it was so bittersweet. Losing John was extremely heartbreaking, but it’s been amazing getting to know his friends and family and to see how each of them are continuing the fight in John’s name. I’m honored to stand with them again this year. And I thank you for coming along for the ride!

Last year, we smashed our goal of $5,000 for the cause, even though at times I really doubted that I’d be able to pull it off. This year, I’m asking your help to raise $3,000. If you can make a donation, big or small – it all adds up! – or if you’d like to participate by volunteering your time or helping with an event, please let me know.

Mahalo,
Malia =)

With a few donations that should be clearing soon, I’ll be up to about $4400 – only $600 from my goal of $5,000 this year in John Kark’s memory. If you’d like to help, please consider making a tax deductible donation at http://tinyurl.com/malia-TNT2010.

I also have 2011 Entertainment Books for Hawaii in stock! They retail for $30 each but come with $25 in “bonus cards” (new this year!) that you can use right off the bat at Taco del Mar, Cattle Company, Chart House, Big City Diner and Go Bananas. Inside you’ll also find hundreds of buy one get one free or special offers for fine dining, casual dining, shops, and travel. If you need a book for Hawaii, let me know and I will get it to you right away. For out of state editions (they have them all over the mainland so if you’re traveling or have relatives, it makes a great gift) you can purchase online at http://tinyurl.com/entertainment2011.

For another easy way to help, please consider purchasing a Ward Centers Festival of Giving ticket for the weekend of November 12-14 (right before the Christmas rush!) Your entire $10 donation for the festival ticket goes directly to the Leukemia Society, and in return you get discounts at almost all the Ward Centers Merchants! For a full list of shopping & dining discounts, click here. There is also free gift wrapping, gift card giveaways, and a $10 GC when you submit $150 in Ward Centers receipts for the weekend – which means your ticket is basically free if you use it, but your $10 donation still goes straight to the charity! It’s the perfect time to start your holiday shopping, before the mad rush hits.

Thanks again for all your support! I could not do this without you… =)

our first clue arrived by email at 1am friday morning and it was DIFFICULT!! in order to solve it, you needed to first know what a vigenere cipher is, then solve the RIDDLE to figure out the KEY to apply to the CODE listed on the clue! if you decoded it correctly, it revealed our starting location, which was across from aloha tower!!

when we arrived, i tried to greet as many of the teams and players as i could and to tell them a little about the leukemia society. it was a great group! once we all sorted out teams and team names (my group of 5 was called “the ravenchase mavens”) we gathered around for instructions.

we broke up into our teams and opened the backpacks we’d been given to see what items we’d be using to solve the clues. continuing with the poker theme of our starter clue, our bag contained a deck of cards, a cut out heart, an infrared flashlight, and a lighter! hidden in a secret pocket was also a binary decoder! (ok you can see my inner nerd getting excited here! haha…)

we pulled out our treasure map and got to work!

we were given six clues and two bonus clues which required us to run around various locations in downtown, including the capitol building, hawaii theater, an irish pub, and more. the clues were extremely detailed and difficult to crack. for this one, once we finally decoded the message “heat crib”, we realized we needed to use the lighter we’d been given to pass over the clue. when we did that, all of the letters and numbers disappeared except for a phone number which gave us the answer!! so crazy!

along the route we were also told to look for random poker chips that were hidden along the way (we found two!) and secret agents who could help us! christina actually found a secret agent but we later realized that we hadn’t asked him the right questions, shucks! lol…

we all were told to make it back to gordon biersch at a specific time and any late minutes would be points deducted. as the time ticked down we rushed to our last clue, and solved it quickly to get back to the end on time. at the finish line, we gathered for a much deserved drink and waited for the points to be tallied!

in the end, the ravenchase mavens solved all but one of the bonus clues, and it was enough to give us second place!! we were so proud of ourselves! our trophy: a silver spray painted jester! hahaha… (first place was a potty training toilet filled with candy and spray painted gold!!) so classic.

i’d highly recommend ravenchase to anyone who’s interested! they were awesome with our fundraiser, and they also do public events (including holiday themed ones, like halloween, st patty’s day, and new years), private parties, and corporate team building… for $35 a player, it’s totally worth it and i can’t wait for their next event!

thanks to all who participated, to those who donated prizes for us to raffle at the end, and to the awesome staff at ravenchase. what a great event for a great cause! MAHALO!!

a little background information: any charity that does fundraising is spending money to earn money for its cause and the leukemia society is no exception. what i love about the leukemia society’s team in training program is that it puts together extraordinary people with a great cause – blood cancer research, awareness, and support. researchers in the area of blood cancers also are frequently able to make progress towards curing other types of cancer as well. so in my small way, this is my way of trying to help to find a way to stop cancer from taking more lives – not just leukemia, but all forms of cancer.

when you sign up for the team in training, you commit to raising an amount for the charity (called your “fundraising minimum”) and also pledging to complete an endurance event (like a marathon, triathalon, etc.) minimums are calculated so that at least 75% of the funds raised go directly to the charity. the other 25% goes to support needed to help participants reach these goals. team in training provides us with support to make it possible – coaches to help train us for the events, support in fundraising, and a community of other team members who are committed to raising these funds. i think it’s a wonderful way to encourage people who have the will to do something like run a marathon to use that momentum for a good cause. and it’s so smart because it gives you multiple goals that are intertwined, with the reward of knowing you will be crossing the finish line at your goal race once your hard work (in both training & fundraising) is done. this is the reason i’ve participated with TNT for five years now. i’ve lost track, but i believe i’ve been able to raise over $15,000 for the cause.

in the past, i’ve often done both honolulu marathon as well as the nike women’s marathon with team in training, combining my event “fundraising minimums” and then aiming way above them. this year my minimum for nike is $2550, and with a few donations pending, i’ve actually just crossed that threshhold! yipppeee! i was originally planning to do honolulu marathon with TNT as well, but i’ve decided to train on my own this year so that more of the money i raise will go directly to the charity – basically everything from this point on goes 100% to the leukemia society.

having reached my minimum, i could just stop here. people sometimes wonder why i don’t because putting together these events can definitely be stressful. but i really do believe that if you CAN make a difference in the world, you SHOULD do whatever you can… even though it’s rough in this economy, i’m trying to get creative to give people more FUN ways to be able to support what i believe is a good cause. even if you don’t believe in this charity yourself, or don’t know much about it, i hope that supporting my cause can be a way for others to do good in the world too… For anyone who has lost a loved one to cancer (any form!) i really believe that we are making a difference by helping to raise this money now. So THANK YOU for your support – we are ALL running for a cure. =)