Day Zero Project goal #1 - Donate blood

As you might have seen from a few of my past posts, I've been trying to spread the word that more people need to be registering on the bone marrow donor registry. It's so that people like my friend Emily have a greater chance of finding a blood match in order to have a stem cell or bone marrow transfer that could save their life.

A few weeks ago, my friend Ruth and I had planned to go donate blood after she saw that it was one of my goals for my Day Zero Project and she too had never donated blood. We had booked an appointment and everything, but then I developed a cold and so we had to cancel because in order to donate you have to be feeling 100% healthy during the 7 day period leading up to the donation. The cold lingered for a very long time, but in that time another of my friends wanted to go as well, and when I had finally gotten better, yet another of my friends told me that she wanted to put her name on the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry (ABMDR). The four of us booked our appointment for today. 

So this is the part where I reflect over how great timing can be sometimes. Only a few days ago, Emily told me that she was going to be interviewed by the popular Channel 7 morning news and entertainment show Sunrise. It was then that I told her I'd be going in to register and so Emily organised for the camera man to come and film us while we were donating. It was all such great timing! Not only will Sunrise help to spread the word about Emily, but viewers will also be able to see just how simple it is to register on the ABMDR. It's honestly as simple as filling out a form.

The actual donating blood part was also not as scary as it might seem. The nurses take very good care of you, making sure you're comfortable and relaxed. It was all very pain free for me, and afterwards you get free food! 

Not only did my three friends join the ABMDR, but the camera man did it too! It warms my heart seeing the kindness of people.

My friends and I have our fingers crossed that one of us will be a match for Emily, but even if we're not, what we did could still help someone else out there.

If you're interested in donating blood or joining the bone marrow donor registry call the Red Cross Blood Donation Services on 13 14 95 to make an appointment to donate blood, and they will give you the form you need to register on the ABMDR. 

'What If You Knew' - XickFilms

About three months ago my friend Emily approached me and asked me to help her put together a short video to help encourage people to register on the bone marrow registry so that she would have a better chance at finding a match for a stem cell transplant. I don't have any experience with filming and putting together a video but I knew of a group of guys who did. Their production name is XickFilms and they've been making short videos for about a year and abit. They were so kind and agreed to help me out with this project for Emily. They came up with a script called 'What if You Knew' and we got together today to do the filming. 

The last time I was in a short film was back in year 11 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO7VJ7RLISo). That was six years ago and it was a video my friend put together about leavers jackets. This is my first time in a XickFilm production and I had a great time acting and watching the guys in their element. 

I hope that with this short film, we'll get more people wanting to donate blood and register their name on the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry. Not only is Emily in need but there is also a 23 year-old woman named Lauren from Perth who has a rare type of Leukemia and is in need of a bone marrow transplant (more info here).

If you haven't donated blood, then please do it. And if you're interested in registering to be a donor then you can do that when you donate blood! Just contact the Australian Red Cross Blood Service on 13 14 95. Please. 

May I introduce the wonderful guys from XickFilms! Check out more of their work at https://www.youtube.com/user/XickFilms

Silent auction

As my regular blog followers may know, my very good friend Emily is battling Non-Hodgkin's Leukemia and she needs stem cells for a stem cell transplant in order to suvive long enough to see her son grow up to be a man. A friend of Emilys hosted a silent auction which I attended tonight. I've never been to a proper auction of any kind, let alone a silent one, and so I didn't really know what to expect; but my post today will shed some light about what they are and why we should ALL GO if there is a fundraiser silent auction being held. 

So basically, items up for auction were displayed around the house. The host was very good to categorise all of the items on separate tables. There were tables for women's jewelery, kids toys, books, DVDs, various gift vouchers, PC games, children's clothes, ceramic and glassware and just about anything else you can think of. Each item was placed on a piece of paper on which we wrote our name and our bidding price. There were no starting prices, so that was left up to the person placing the bid. By the end of the night, if you had the highest bid on the piece of paper, then you walked home with the item. 

But wait there was more. There were raffles for bottles of champagne (Moet, guys. The good stuff) and other gift prizes. There were also items for sale that you didn't have to bid for. There was great food, drinks and music and it was so great mingling with everyone there. 

It was such a fun night! and best of all, we raised $1644.88 for Emily to help cover some of the costs of treatment and to go towards their 5 year-old son's schooling.

I wish more people had been there tonight. I think that perhaps the numbers of people weren't so high because they didn't know how great silent auctions can be; I for one am so glad that I went. Next time, I'm going to spread the word to everyone I know; even those who don't know Emily because it's something that everyone can enjoy. 

What really warmed my heart tonight were that some people came who didn't even know Emily but they brought items to auction off and helped with running the night so that it all went smoothly (which it did!). Their hearts are gold. In fact, everyone who was there had hearts of gold. And when you're in a room full of people like this, you can't help but feel like the whole world is good.

 

This is a haul that I walked away with :) I won that fancy Margaret River wine with a bid price of only $10!!

For Margi and Em

I've been very fortunate to have a lot of female role models throughout my life. My friend Emily who is battling with Lymphoma, is most definitely one of those people; another is my sister. My intelligent, beautiful, kind, funny, hardworking, fun loving, wise, cutie pie, little big sister. She may be three years older than me, but she's a good 10cm shorter than me too. I can't remember exactly at what age I overtook her, but I've been taller than her for quite some time now. I tell my sister that I love her all the time. There is, and always will be so much truth in those words when I say them to her. And even when she's miles away at work or anywhere else that's not right here next to me, the love is and always will be there. 

My sister and I don't argue. That's not strange to me. But apparently to other people, it's weird not to argue with your sister (so I've heard). We may have argued a lot when we were between the age of new born to age 10, but after that I don't ever recall us arguing. Seriously. The last argument I remember we had was when I ripped her favourite stuffed bunny open with my bare teeth. How vicious of me! Tisk tisk. 

I'm not sure why we don't argue, but it might have something to do with something that happened between a friend and I back in primary school. I think I was in year five or six. My best friend at the time and I had gotten in an argument and when we reconciled she said to me "let's just not fight again". I'm sure there was more to it then just that, but her words really had a profound effect on me. From that point on, I just didn't see any point in arguing with friends. I think that must have rubbed off on my relationship with my sister because I then and even now I don't like the idea of fighting with her. Don't get me wrong, no relationship is perfect and so an argument here and there is healthy, but when it comes to my sister, I don't want any of that. I'm sure there are a thousand psychologists out there who would tell me other wise, but that's just the way we are.

My sister told me that she'd be coming to visit today and so I decided to dedicate my 'something new' to her. I pulled out an old photo album that Emily had put together for us. It was filled with photos of us from when we were young. I scanned the photos and uploaded them onto a digital photo frame. I found a pretty decent digital frame which also played music in the background so I uploaded songs that reminded me of us and of our childhood. Lots of Disney songs and songs from musicals we've watched together like Phantom of the Opera. Since my sister started renting her own place, I've yet to get her a house warming gift. I hope this makes up for that.

My sister made my childhood so great. We played paper dolls, dress ups, computer games (I remember we played a PC game called Might and Magic), Nintendo 64, watched hours of cartoons and Video Hits...and those were just some of the things we did indoors. Outside was a whole different adventure. 

If it wasn't for Emily, none of these photos would have been taken. She captured my childhood and my relationship with my amazing big sister in these photographs. 
Help give Emily the opportunity to not only capture more memories of her young 5 year-old son Luke, but also give her the opportunity to live long enough to show those photos to Luke when he's a grown man. 
Emily needs donor stem cells. You could be a match for her. Please please please register your name on the Bone Marrow Registry and become a stem cell donor.