Charity Raffle -- Please Read!!

[davef]

Update 07/23

---- Raffle is now closed, huge thank you to everyone! ----

We will still be accepting donations until this Friday (07/27) but there are no more raffle tickets for sale.

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Greetings from the Jersey Shore…

About 5 years ago, my family had their first experience with the most feared word in the English language, the dreaded “C”word – cancer… My beloved uncle, my mother’s brother, lost a long harsh battle with esophageal cancer. I witnessed this nightmare of a disease literally devour my uncle from the inside out while causing deep pain and suffering to all those that loved him. It scarred me for life…

Little did I know that this was only a taste of things to come…

Less than 1 year after my uncle’s passing, my father noticed a lump… (*lump* a seemingly benign word that has quickly become part of my everyday vocabulary, a word that once meant a small mound of dirt that I could play in or that special part of the gravy I would try to avoid on Thanksgiving dinner --- “Lump” a word that now frightens me to the core)

That lump turned out to be malignant and everything in my life instantly changed….

4 years later, as I sit in my father’s home feeling good that I had spent most of the day with him basically doing nothing but talking, I am coming to you, my friends, my associates, my extended family with a small request…

You see, my father’s first lump was just the beginning for him (for us). Since that initial cancer, he has been consistently diagnosed with a new unrelated cancer every year (unrelated, so the “experts” say). Luckily, for the majority of us, cancer is still considered quite rare, but for my father, cancer has become commonplace. A lump, a swelling, an irritation anywhere on his body and the entire “Wait of Fear” process starts all over again. You wait in fear after the first doctor’s visit – 2-3 week later a biopsy is performed and you just wait – you sit and wait for the results.. after another 2 weeks you then finally have the results (which in my father’s case, is always bad news) and you wait once again for the prognosis – you then wait for treatment to start – and then the entire process begins again when the next lump is found. This process itself becomes a cancer – eating at you, making all family members suffer. It is difficult to describe just how devastating this disease truly is.

Having finished yet another tumor removal surgery only a few weeks ago (a week long stay in the hospital), my dear father just found another “lump”. This time the “wait of fear” is not necessary; the doctor’s will be so kind and spare us, they immediately concluded that it is yet another recurrence…

1 week from now he begins 6 weeks of intensive chemotherapy and radiation, 3 years after his first experience with chemotherapy left him with neuropathy, permanently handicapping him… For 6 weeks (possibly longer) he will have to “eat” through a feeding tube coming out of the side of his stomach, he will be heavily doped up to keep the intense pain manageable and be unable to speak to me or any of his grandchildren (one of the few things left that brings him joy) They predict recovery from these procedures will take at least 1 full year. The alternative? There is none….

My dad has now been diagnosed with cancer 5 times in just under 4 years (possibly 6 as it is getting hard to keep track). Three of these cancers are different forms and in different parts of his body, completely unrelated, 2 of them are recurrences. Words like biopsy, oncologist, radiologist, chemotherapy, carcinoma and a host of others are now common words in my family… I have learned the hard way that doctors’ still know very little about cancer and they need our help, EVERY LITTLE BIT HELPS!

So now I come to you, my extended family, to ask for your support.

Ascend Acoustics is now hosting a charity raffle with all proceeds going to Sloan-Kettering Cancer Research Center in New York (http://www.mskcc.org/mskcc/html/44.cfm), with the hope that our children (both yours and mine) NEVER have to experience what my father’s kids are struggling through…

150 tickets at $35 each…

Updated 07/18/07 -- 25 more tickets added for a total of 175 tickets at $35 each. Fourth prize added, 1 pr CBM-170 SE (thank you Brad!)

First Prize = 1 pair Sierra-1 loudspeakers (your choice of finish)
Second Prize = 1 pair CMT-340 SE + Rocket X-Sub
Third Prize = 1 pair CBM-170 SE + Rocket X-Sub
Fourth Prize = 1 pair CBM-170 SE

(with very special thanks to my dearest friend Mark Schifter for donating the subwoofers – Mark, thank you for being there!!)

Winners will be announced once the goal is reached.

Thank you in advance for all of your support.

To my dad – Your strength, your courage – you are a true hero and an inspiration to all, and I thank you for deciding to stand up after so many devastating rounds to continue the fight. Most people would have thrown in the towel – Not You – NOT MY FATHER.. I promise, you WILL win this!