Winter Season - Week 1

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.

--Eleanor Roosevelt

Fundraising Tip
Set up your fundraising website by personalizing the text, adding a photo, and setting a fundraising goal. The best websites include photos of honored patients.

Frequently Asked Questions
WHAT DOES THE LLS DO?
There are 68 chapters of the Society located across the United States and Canada. The Society supports a variety of programs: research, patient services, advocacy, community service and education.

• Research Funding—supports basic and clinical grants to find causes, cures and preventive methods.
• Patient Services—provides financial aid and peer support groups.
• Advocacy—supports access to healthcare and increased research funding.
• Community Service—referrals to local resources and sponsorship of marrow donor drives.
• Education—free educational materials and professional medical symposia. Free literature is available through the toll-free Public Information Line 1-800-955-4572 and through our Web Site http://www.lls.org.

Mission Moment
Peyton Mayhew
Brandon, FL
Living with ALL for 1 year, 7 months
Age: 4

Peyton is 4 years old. Her story is common to her disease and devastating to our family. On July 13, 2006 I had taken her to the pediatrician because she had been running a low-grade fever and complaining that she hurt. We thought she had an ear infection or maybe strep throat. How shocking to find yourself in an oncologist's office hearing news that will change your entire life. Peyton receives her treatment at All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg and Tampa, we have the most wonderful team of doctors and nurses who support, help and educate us each step of the way.

Our family is blessed with Peyton's older brother and sister Nathaniel and Rachael, who have been helpful, patient and understanding throughout the beginning stages of her treatment. We have had the most amazing outpouring of love and support from our friends, family, church, school, and community. Prayers have been prayed, meals delivered, presents brought to the house, cards mailed, our website visited for updates on how she's feeling and just calls to see if we need to talk.

It's been a growth time for us as a family to come together and be strong for each other- to be patient, to give, love and support each other. It's heartbreaking to watch your child's pain, to hear their cries, and to see the physical manifestations of the disease in their once perfect body. You feel like you can do nothing for them, you have no control, and there's a sense of complete helplessness. Yet you comfort, you console, you cheer, you make them smile and laugh, you make favorite foods and read the same story over and over. You hold and love through tears in the night, and let them know you're there with them through each treatment and will never leave them.

--Anissa Mayhew, mother of Peyton Mayhew www.hope4peyton.org