Read-A-Thon: Charity Commitment

Tomorrow Dewey’s 24 Hour Read-A-Thon kicks off at 5:00 am PST. Historically, this event has not just been about reading, blogging and winning books…but one of its main focuses has been on reading for charity. This time around I have decided to read for the American Cancer Society.

My family, like many families, has been largely impacted by cancer. My paternal grandmother died of squamous cell carcinoma of the mouth and tongue. My mother’s brother (my uncle) died from lung cancer several years ago. My father battled colon cancer several years ago (and I am happy to say he has been cancer-free now for seven years). In October 2010 my maternal grandmother was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer and has been struggling to live with the disease. And, as many of you know, my oldest sister Paula was diagnosed with colon cancer in December 2009 and beginning in the fall of 2010 has been undergoing chemotherapy for the spread of the disease (she is almost done with her twelve rounds of chemo which should wrap up in May).

The lifetime risk that a male living in the United States will be diagnosed with some type of cancer is a whopping 44.29% – and for a female it is 37.76% (statistics lifted from the American Cancer Society site). Between 20% and 25% of people will succumb to the disease. Given those numbers, it is a pretty sure bet that at some point in your life you will know someone who has been diagnosed with cancer. In fact, in 2007 it was estimated that 11,714,000 people in the United States were living with cancer (1,112,000 were living with colon or rectal cancer). I don’t know about you, but those numbers take my breath away.

Cancer treatment has evolved tremendously in the last twenty years … and more people are surviving. But it still has a long way to go. Research is now focusing on more targeted therapies, as well as robotic surgeries and RNA profiling (read more about the future of cancer treatment here).

My desire to donate to the American Cancer Society is a personal one…and I hope you will join me. My commitment for this event is to donate $0.05 per page read or $30.00 (which ever is greater) to the American Cancer Society (and I am going to specify that my donation go to Colorectal cancer research because of the immense impact that disease has had on my family).

Here is how YOU can get involved and support my efforts this weekend:

• Consider sponsoring me during the read-a-thon by either making a one time/any amount donation to the American Cancer Society OR by pledging a certain amount of money per page I read (I hope to read somewhere close to 600 pages during the event), AND/OR
• Blog about my efforts with a link back to this page.

IF you would like to make a donation, visit this page on the American Cancer Society’s website. Also, please leave me a comment if you are either blogging about this charity OR if you wish to sponsor me OR if you decided to make a singular donation just because you wanted to (please leave your comment before 5:00 pm PST on Sunday if you want to be considered for the giveaway below).

I have several books in my stacks to give away – and I plan on choosing one person randomly who either blogs about my efforts or donates this weekend to the American Cancer Society – that person will be able to select the book they’d most like to read from my giveaway stack. I’ll mail anywhere in the world.

Thank you for your support!!