Please help a worthy cause

Dear friends

Next April, as I did three years ago, I will be running in the Country Music Half Marathon in Nashville, Tennessee, as part of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training. I’m asking for your support of this important cause.

While there have been tremendous advances in the treatment of blood cancers, leukemia is still the leading cause of cancer deaths among children under 15, and young men and women up to age 35. Multiple myeloma, a related blood cancer, still has a 5-year survival rate of only 30%, and disproportionately affects African-Americans. The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's mission is to cure these diseases, and to improve the quality of life for patients and their families.

I am running the race in honor of my dear friend and mentor, Ron Burton, who died of multiple myeloma in 2003. Ron devoted every day of his life to the service of others. Chief among his many good works, the Ron Burton Training Village, a camp for inner-city children in Massachusetts that he founded twenty years ago, continues his mission of giving hope and opportunity to kids who otherwise have none. When Ron passed, still in the prime of his life, the world lost a force for good, years before it should have.

Please help me emulate Ron’s devotion to others, and hasten the day when these vile blood cancers lose their power to cause suffering and death. While I know that times are tight for many of us, this cause is a vital one. These cancers are relentless, and they do not pause for recessions; neither can the fight against them. I hope you will allocate some of your charitable giving for the year to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

You may donate online at http://pages.teamintraining.org/mi/cmc09/jsilver or mail me a check, payable to “Leukemia and Lymphoma Society,” at any time between now and the race next April (get it to me by end of December for a tax deduction this year!). As I train for and run the race, Ron’s example and your generosity will give me strength. On behalf of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and those whose lives they touch, thank you.

Warmly, with best wishes for the holiday season and the new year,
Jeff