Thank you, organ donor!

For a fun summer read, 

https://books2read.com/Prospecting-for-Love
 

July is my birthday month, and this year, I had to renew my driver’s license. So I made an appointment, drove to the center and got in the queue. When my turn came, I gave the lady my old license and she asked if my height and weight were the same. “Close enough.” Then she asked if I still wanted to be an organ donor.

It wasn’t the first time I thought that without someone else being a donor, I wouldn’t be here. Back in 2010, I had moved to Tennessee for a new job, and within two months of starting, I was hospitalized for emergency surgery and while in recovery, my blood work came back abnormal  and I was transferred to the cancer center with ALL (Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia). At 60 years of age, I was attacked by one of the cancers most known for affecting children. No precursor, no warning. I had had a thorough physical just before accepting my new job. Now I would be doing eight rounds of chemo, in the hospital more days a month than at home. I couldn’t work or drive; barely ate. My vision was bad to the point I couldn’t write, which was my passion. Many of you probably know the cancer drill.

When I was growing up, I don’t recall hearing of someone with cancer, whereas nowadays, just about everyone has someone close to them affected by the disease, which takes many forms. Perhaps we’re more aware because of modern media methods, or perhaps it’s because the medical field can diagnose sooner and more accurately.

As of June 2024, an estimated 1.6 million people in the United States are living with blood cancer, which includes leukemia, myeloma, Hodgkin lymphoma, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Blood cancer is a serious illness that occurs when abnormal blood cells grow out of control and crowd out normal cells in the blood, bone marrow, or plasma. This prevents normal cells from developing and performing important functions. Of that number, an estimated 437,337 people are living with or in remission from leukemia. In 2024, the American Cancer Society estimates that about 62,770 new cases of leukemia will be diagnosed and 23,670 people will die from the disease.

Fortunately, there is a cure for some Leukemia in the form of bone marrow transplants. We don’t often think of our blood as “an organ” in terms of transplants and while donating blood is done quite often, donating bone marrow is a more involved process. The hospital looks for a donor who matches in as many as ten different markers, not just a blood type as you might think. My sisters and brothers and several nephews and nieces volunteered to be tested but there were no matches. My children couldn’t be donors as they had half of my DNA.

Luckily there is the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), which operates Be The Match, the world's largest and most diverse registry of potential bone marrow and blood stem cell donors. Be The Match works with a global network of partners to facilitate transplants, including 180 transplant centers and 19 public cord blood banks. It has over 7 million registered donors in the US, and fortunately, through this organization, they were able to find a perfect match and I had a bone marrow transplant in April 2011. The donors are anonymous and all I ever knew was it was a female in her thirties -- a lovely person willing to take the time and go through the extensive process for someone she did not know. That was thirteen years ago. Thirteen years in which I have been able to resume writing and watching my grandchildren grow into their teens. Thirteen years I would not have had without a donor.

So at age 75, when asked if I wanted to be an organ donor, I wasn’t sure much would still be useful, but my answer was a definite “yes.”

 Another Happy Birthday!

Barbara Baldwin

http://www.authorsden.com/barbarajbaldwin

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Barbara-Baldwin/author/

https://bwlpublishing.ca/baldwin-barbara/

 

HELLO, I'M VICTORIA by Victoria Chatham

BUY LINK

Hello, I’m Victoria and I’m pleased to meet you. I’d rather get to know you than have to write about myself but as my publisher Books We Love suggested we share something of ourselves so our readers can get to know us, I’m creeping out from under my writing stone.

You can take it from that statement that I’m something of an introvert, a trait I believe many writers share. However, I think I came by that attitude as a form of defence. Being a first born I had something of a Type A personality, taking charge even as a child. Once, on overhearing my parents discussing how they were to get to an upcoming regimental dinner and dance, I marched from my grandmother’s house several blocks to the taxi driver’s house and promptly ordered a taxi for them. I was five years old.

But, being constantly on the move as an army brat  drove me into myself and my books. My Dad was classed as a Permanent Staff Instructor to Territorial Army units, but we were anything but permanent. After the third move when I was about eight, I can clearly remember thinking there was no point in making friends. In a year, or less, we would be packing up and moving on again. I started making myself as inconspicuous as I could at each new school I arrived at and although friendly, I chose to not make close friends. As such I was considered something of an oddity and left pretty much alone. Because I read so much I usually had an answer for everything in class, something else that did not endear me to my class mates although my teachers praised my efforts as they totted up my house marks.

My biggest passions were reading and horses. My parents could never understand where this passion sprang from and were less than understanding when I left home to work in a hunt stables. I was in my element with four horses in my string and loved everything about them from Thor's weird sense of humor, Doctor's pleasure in cuddling, Zulaika's fascination with birds and Tangerine's inability to walk, he was a constant jogger. I was at the age, of course, where boys and horses were on a par, until one boy beat the horses by a head and we were married. We produced three children, before parting company fifteen years later.

I’d tried writing as a teenager, lurid tales about Virginia, Girl of the Golden West. Virginia was my alter ego, the girl I would loved to have been. She could ride, shoot, was incredibly brave and did everything I would never have dared to do. I wrote about her freedom with utter longing. Unfortunately, my parents read one of my scribbled stories and laughed until they cried. Probably rightly, but it was a long time before I took up the pen again.

My working life after the horses and the family was a series of office management positions, some interesting others not. In my mid-30’s I took up horse riding again and gained a great deal of pleasure from being around them again. In between times I had variously been on one committee or another, starting with the PTA, then Cubs and Scouts for my boys and Junior Red Cross for my daughter. I was on our family horse riding club committee for years, helping to organize and run shows.

After meeting and marrying a Canadian, I made Calgary, Alberta my home. While my immigration processing proceeded, I volunteered for various organizations until I was able to legally obtain work in my new country. This time I went into apartment management, something that never had a dull moment. You never knew what people were going to do next from the super nice, young professional man who was arrested for drug dealing, to the cheerful hooker I had to evict under the ‘wrongful use of premises’ clause in the lease agreement. After the apartment buildings I managed properties for a self-storage company. No lack of stories there I can tell you! I guess my childhood managing ways came to the fore in the end.

These days I can look back on my varied positions and see how each one involved record keeping and writing of some kind, usually reports. I ran my riding club’s newsletter for a couple of years, wrote a book for my daughter and finally, with huge encouragement from my new husband, took up writing for myself. With my first writing group I was membership director and assistant newsletter editor, then editor for about two years. As such I attended most board meetings. With my second writers group I again managed memberships before moving on to Program Director for monthly meetings and workshops. Whereas some people are intimidated by organization I find great satisfaction in working out all the parts of the whole and making them work together. I guess that five year old still lurks beneath my skin!

These days, and fortunately retired from formal employment, I continue to write, read and volunteer at Spruce Meadows, the world class equestrian centre just south of Calgary. I enjoy hiking and trail riding in the summer. I snow shoe in winter. I’m involved in the AMBER study, a five year study being conducted by the University of Calgary on the effects of diet and exercise on breast cancer patients.

Yes, I’ve beaten that beast twice now. I was first diagnosed in 2006, had treatment in 2007 and had follow up hormone therapy from 2008 to 2013. One year after that it was back again. In 2014 my course of treatment was very different as I refused chemotherapy, radiation and hormone therapy. Instead I chose surgery for a complete bilateral mastectomy and altered my diet and lifestyle. All the reading and research I did during my first course of treatment convinced me it was not the best for when I faced it again. Along with discussions with my own doctor, my surgeon and oncologist, I consulted with a naturopath and nutritionist. I researched several clinics that were having huge success in treating their cancer patients with alternative therapies. My friend Maxine helped me enormously in researching various superfoods to help boost my immune system. And from my early 30s, when one riding instructor recommended I take up yoga, I still go to class and practise at home most days a week.

I’m happy, healthy and love my life. I have a super group of friends, I visit my family in England as often as I can and have a great deal to be thankful for. While some women worry about maturing (hey, that’s what fine wine does!) I wouldn’t want to be any age again. Been there, done that, I’ll just enjoy now and what’s ahead.

 His Dark Enchantress

The Buxton Chronicles

Casting Your Characters - Cancer - Janet Lane Walters

This is a sign I am rather familiar with since I have a birthday today. I'm also blessed or cursed with 6 planets in Sun, Moon, Mercury, Mars, Venus and Pluto (only a planet astrologically) I also have a series featuring Cancer heroines - Moon Child. At this point there are three completed and I'm working on the fourth one.

1. 

The character with a Cancer sun is usually quiet and reserved yet they do like the spotlight. They are versatile, and changeable. They set their own course in life and have no desire to change what they want to do. They have a fertile imagination and dramatic ability. Tears can flow with ease though they hate to show this weakness to others. They love strange experiences and enjoy the occult. They may be psychic and have a retentive memory. They fear ridicule and love kindness. If someone badly hurts them, they will remember and they will erode this person rather than blast.

With a Rising sign in Cancer, the character will be changeable about life and their occupations, enjoying more than one but usually one at a time. They have a tenacious memory. They are industrious and frugal. Fear of ridicule makes them discreet and conventional. Their emotions are strong. They are receptive to new ideas. They have a knack for adapting to their environment.

Moon in Cancer. The emotional nature. There is a desire to work along the line of least resistance. They are sociable and domestic, sometimes talkative. Their emotions are influenced by the environment. They can be imposed upon and may resent this but never complain. They enjoy travel and home. They are fond of the occult and antiques. They desire to live near water. They may be either consciously or unconsciously psychic.

https://twitter.com/JanetL717

 http://janetlanewalters.com/home

 https://www.facebook.com/janet.l.walters.3?v=wall&story_fbid=113639528680724

 http://bookswelove.net/

Then and Now by Jude Pittman

December 31, 2008, a date I’ll never forget.  My mom, Lillian, my husband John and myself, spent our usual quiet evening watching the ball drop in Times Square – where it’s 2 hours earlier than it is here in Calgary, Alberta. Then off to bed.  I took a quick shower and when I ran the sponge along my left side, I felt something strange on the side of my breast.  

Mom had breast cancer when she was in her early 50’s, so I’d always been aware of the risks, but at 65 I wasn’t really thinking about it too much – or I hadn’t been until I felt that lump.  It was the size of a golf ball, and when John felt the same sized lump, we both knew life was about to change.  Boy did it ever.  By the end of February I was recovering from the surgery that removed my left breast, and in May I started a rigorous round of very aggressive chemo-therapy.

 (Chemo is not glamorous)

 

Biopsy results had revealed that my cancer was what they call “triple negative” a virulent, fast growing cancer that was very difficult to treat. In fact, if chemo didn’t work there weren’t likely to be any other options.  The good news was that we’d caught it so fast there was no lymph node involvement – a fact that probably saved my life.

I’ve now passed the five year survivor mark, and I’m four years out from having a breast reconstruction – using my own body fat.  I’m one of those who rejects almost anything put onto or into my body that isn’t self-propagated, so an artificial implant was not even to be considered.  We’ll just skip right over that pain and all the nasty little side roads, like stitches that wouldn’t heal and reopening wounds.  The really important thing was I survived and I felt great.  Oh, and I still kept working at my full‑time job as a legal assistant right through it all.  Thanks to the awesome lawyers that I worked for and a husband who took care of anything and everything I needed in order to keep me well.

Fast forward to 2014. Not only am I feeling great, but last month in company with three other awesome women, I’m a proud representative of the Province of Alberta as team provincial ten pin bowling champions.  Considering that five years ago I didn’t expect to ever lift a bowling ball again, this is an amazing experience for me.  I haven’t checked, but at 70 I’m probably one of the oldest 10 pin provincial champions they’ve had, but didn’t want to inquire and draw too much attention to that fact.  I don’t know what the rules are, but wouldn’t want Bowl Canada to decide I was “too old” for the team.

2014 Alberta men’s and women’s provincial ten pin champions.Jude on the far right.

So, as this blog is posted (thanks Jamie) I will be in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan bowling against the other nine provinces for the Canadian National ten pin bowling championship.  Wish me luck, and I’ll be sending Jamie an update.  As long as I play well and don’t let my team down I’ll be smiling like a Cheshire cat just to think what I’ve been able to do in these extra years the Creator saw fit to grant.

Publisher and author

Jude Pittman is part of the publishing team behind the very popular Canadian publisher, Books We Love Ltd.  

Publisher Jude and Marketing Manager Jamie longed to see authors treated like the professionals they were, and after years of acting as promotion agents for a large number of well-known authors, they decided it was time to take Books We Love to the next level.

Both Jude and Jamie are romantic suspense and mystery authors, and they believe in treating authors the way they like to be treated.

Jude's mystery series, Deadly Secrets, Deadly Betrayal and Deadly Consequences (featuring P.I. Kelly McWinter) as well as a special edition, Jude Pittman Triple Threat, have all been published by Books We Love and are currently available at Amazon in electronic or print formats. Jude’s latest work, a novella entitled, Bad Medicine is also available at Amazon. 

Jude Pittman Amazon Author Page ~  
http://www.amazon.com/Jude-Pittman/e/B004XJ6850/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1