Welcome to Day 7 of the Blogging for Blood Cancer event! Today’s prize is a Fused glass pendant from Lucky Girl Trading Company & Tess shopping bag (value=$20.00) courtesy of Mimsi Bags. Yesterday’s winner was Commenter #10 Tracey Byram who knew Donnall Thomas, M.D. was the first scientist to successfully perform a bone marrow transplant between two humans.

By Sean Haines

Where do I begin?…This past July marked exactly three and a half years since I lost my 8 year old son, Matthew, to cancer…He will forever be 8 years old in my mind, but his younger brother, Chris, likes to think of his older brother forever being his ‘older’ brother and celebrates Matthew’s birthday each year by putting one additional candle on Matt’s birthday cake…I guess it’s easier for him to handle the loss this way….He needs to feel he will have his older brother, the one who taught him so much while here on Earth, waiting to help guide and protect him once more when he rejoins him in Heaven.

The twins, who we found out we were having seven months after Matthew’s passing (just as Matthew told us we would), have truly helped to bring joy and happiness back into our lives once more…With the devastating loss of our eldest son, we lived our lives ‘on hold’ until this rambunctious, laughing and full of mischief duo blessed us with their zest for life…their passion for living…their wonderment at it all…They enabled us the ability to smile again…to be able to see the goodness in God’s creation once more…to be able to be blessedly patient until being reunited with our little man…They helped show us we need to do what we can to make a difference in this world…for them….for their older brother; Chris…and for all the precious children currently suffering from this horrible disease.

This is why I established the Matthew David Haines Foundation and why I work hand in hand with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Together, we make a huge, positive impact in the betterment of these children’s lives…in their lives as well as their entire families’. The dedication shown by the LLS staff and the research, education and patient services they provide has helped countless needy families such as my own and have brought a cure to blood cancers much closer to a reality than merely a desperate dream prayed for by every suffering patient and their devoted families.

The support I have received by the LLS and the staff members, who are more like extended family members, have helped me to see there is hope for the future…And with everyone’s continued dedication to the same goal of eradicating blood cancers…that beautiful future of a life lived and not a life lost becomes closer and brighter each and every day…God Bless everyone who is helping to ‘fight the good fight’….I appreciate and love you all…

Take care and God Bless,

Sean Haines
www.matthewhaines.info

For a chance to win just leave a comment, to Sean by MIDNIGHT PST Monday, August 18, 2008.

You’ll also be entered for our grand prize to be drawn Monday for a $900 Timberland and Lacoste product assortment, courtesy of Samsonite. (Comments are moderated.) Make sure to stop back for more information and even more chances to win!