By now you have probably read the story of my brothers cancer journey posted on our FridayHarbour.org website.

You’ll recall that he decided to start his treatment in 2008 at Scott & White hospital in Temple Texas. It was my hope that he would transfer his care to MD Anderson for several reasons. It would have been 15 minutes from my house. It would have potentially lessened the burden on our mother. And as I know now, the level of care, expertise and resources available at MD Anderson are really second to none. All in all, Tank fight the good fight for almost a year, and I am thankful for all that Scott & White did for him during his journey. 

As Friday Harbour approaches its 3 year anniversary, I’ll begin to reflect a bit on what we’ve accomplished as a startup non-profit in Houston. Help us by sharing your story on how MD Anderson has impacted your cancer journey.

Remember that sharing is caring!
Brian

It’s inspiring to walk by hundreds of people in each block and think about their underlying needs, as they navigate the streets of one of the worlds most exciting cities. They are our friends, co-workers, family members and such. So they must have some of the same needs, right.

So here’s what we need to do. When we are visiting our friends and family somewhere outside of our own town, ask a few questions about what is driving their world. If you give it time, you will find that we share the same troubles and opportunities, especially when it comes to the things that get us up in the morning and what keeps us up at night.

As I head to Baltimore tonight, the promise I make is that I will take a moment tomorrow to ask a couple of questions. Find out more. And show that what matters, is what matters to the person that I am talking to at that time. 
It’s not that I want to embarrass the person I’m speaking to. Nor do I want them to fell or seem vulnerable to my inquiry. In fact, I think that each of us deep down would beckon at the opportunity to share a ,moment of our lives with someone who would just simply listen and let us get it all out. 

That one moment in town, while it might not ever solve the true problem of the one embellishing it’s description. It might however give the host an opportunity to move to the next stage of addressing the issue. And therefore miraculously gaining the courage to forge ahead.

Because as we all know, there are usually challenges lined up in the que just testing our very ability to meet the, he’d on, one at a time. 
So let’s help each other stay on track, tackling them one at a time, one liberating conversation at a time.

Will you ask the question…and then just listen?
I will.

Sometimes it that “significant other” of yours that you committed to love and honor til death do you part. I know, you may recall the good ole days when you were so smitten with love that you overlooked the little itty bitty things they do to get on your nerves. Well, get over it, forgive them and move on. None of us are perfect. Except you right?!?

Then there is that special co-worker or boss or employee whom you are convinced only exists to make your daily work life a living hell. They talk too much. They are disruptive in meetings. They are always late to meetings, with assignments or just basically just not good at doing their job. Well, we all have one or two of them in our life. And we can’t just go around firing folks just because they are not as AWESOME as we are. So again, get over it, forgive them and move on. That’s way you get paid way more money than they do. Right?!?!

The PAIN that I’m talking about is real pain in your body. You know, the one that you feel every now and again when you first wake up. Or maybe you feel it when preparing for bed. Maybe you feel it dueing that work meeting. Or perhaps while you’re in class listening to your long-winded professor. Sometimes you are just sitting there minding your own business and you feel it in your arm, your side, your back or chest.

The problem is that Americans are more likely to ignore basic pains whenever and however often they occur. Sometimes we go as far as recalling a time you stubbed your toe, ran into that wall, lifted that box or slipped and fell (3 years ago on vacation), and calmly attribute this new pain to that long-ago occurance.

This dumb logic could be part of the reason why one third of patients with invasive cancer are under treated for their PAIN, according to research from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Furthermore, they say that minorities are twice as likely to forego treatment for basic pains. The researchers cite a number of possible reasons for the discrepancy in findings, including: cultural and communication barriers; access to care; concerns about addiction and reluctance to admit pain; expert symptom management and access to effective patient education.

You can read more about the findings of this study at http://jco.ascopubs.org/.

But I can tell you this. I may work harder at building up my tolerance for annoying co-workers. And I may choose to focus on the good genes in my significant other. But when I feel pain in this awesome human body of mine, you can bet you “overpaid salary” that I’m gonna get that PAIN checked out!

What about you?
Take care, Briano

Helping others through www.FridayHarbour.org

Get rid of your stress!

I mean it. Do whatever it takes. Say whatever it takes. Stay away from whomever it takes. Ride, run, cycle, drive, read, eat, watch or call, whomever and whatever it takes. But please get rid of the stress.

Here are a few things that I do:
1. I pray, give praise and thank the Lord for all that He has and will provide me on this earth. I’m not asking you to start up a prayer group, or sit for hours on end trying to think of just the right prayer to pray. I simply take those moments when my muscles begin to tighten and I simply say, Thank You Lord for Your Bountiful Blessings! See, I just said it again. That was easy.
2. I write and mail one card per day to an old friend, just to let them know I’m thinking about them and wish them well. This keep you in better touch, and when you are thinking of others, your problems and challenges become smaller and unimportant. They really do.
3. And finally, I take control of my day, by making a list of 3 things I want to accomplish personally, for Friday Harbour, and for work. Trust me, I end up doing much more during the day, but I don’t put a lot of pressure on myself by having a 20-Item TO DO list.

PLEASE GET RID OF THE STRESS: Travis Giddings recently wrote the following article in the Daily RX

“Cancer is a lot like a runaway train. In order for it to happen, not only did a lot of things go wrong, but the built-in safety mechanisms failed as well.

A team of researchers studied chronic inflammation of tissues and found that inflammation can cause those anti-cancer safety mechanisms to quit working.

Ask your doctor about ways to reduce your cancer risk.
Inflammation over a long period of time does not give the tissue a chance to rest. These cells don’t repair damage, including damage to the DNA, because they are in alert mode.

When no DNA repair proteins are made, this is known as gene silencing. Genetic silencing occurs by a chemical process to the DNA itself, known as methylation.

The group from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center looked at how a process known as DNA methylation was influenced by a chemical produced during stress called PGE2.

Mice in the study were given drugs to reverse the methylation process, stop the inflammation, or they received both drugs together.

Combination therapy produced the best results, reducing the number of tumors by 93 percent and shrinking tumor sizes by half as cancer fighting genes came back to life.

“We’ve known that chronic inflammation increases the risk of developing cancer and progression of disease,” said senior author Raymond DuBois, M.D., Ph.D., and executive VP at MD Anderson.

Studying this mechanism of methylation in inflammation could lead to better information about the most influential factors in preventing and reversing cancer.

The drugs used in the study were most effective when used together. Combining the anti-inflammatory drugs such as Celebrex (celecoxib) with demethylating agents such as Vidaza (azacitidine) produced much better results than either alone did.

“One potential application of our research would be a clinical trial for patients who are at extremely high risk for developing colorectal cancer, such as those with a genetic predisposition, to see if treatment with these agents would decrease their risk,” Dr. DuBois said.

Research was published in the January, 2012 edition of Nature Medicine.

The authors declared no competing financial interests.”

After much deliberation and thought, we recently began to cap our free night offer to a maximum of 3 nights per family per year.

This has already begun to impact our returning families, which really sucks.

I was sharing this impact with a friend of Friday Harbour’s during dinner the other evening…and she looked me in the eye and asked how can she help. Well I told her that I received an email from a patient we helped a few months ago. I told her that they were having a tough time finding alternative housing, but I had made it clear that our program change was best longterm. 

She quickly interrupted and said, I’ll be the difference maker. Christie said she’d personally sponsor this patients expenses during their holiday-week appointment. When the news was shared with the family, they could only say…what a Christmas miracle. 

It’s imperative that Friday Harbour maintains a clear process that our patients both understand and appreciate. That will not change. But there is no real process for individual generosity. Only sincere appreciation.

It’s pretty tough doing what we do here at Friday Harbour. But I continue to get those reminders that we never have to  handle it alone! 

Christy, thanks for your Christmastime random act of kindness!

It was in 2009, during the annual United Way campaign that I was first exposed to the campaign tagline “Do Something About It”. I remember thinking how do I internalize this. Then I recall asking myself if just simply completing a United Way pledge form could be considered as just simply doing something about it? After carefully considering my internal argument, I quickly admitted that making a donation is definitely “doing something”. But in my opinion, it’s short of doing something “About It”.

Fast forward to today, it’s election evening in Houston Texas and I find myself at election headquarters of Laurie A. Robinson; City Council candidate. We are watching election results together with family, friends, college roommates and colleagues. Oh, and a ton of great food and drink. 
As I watch our candidate pace the floor, flashing her smart smile, all while trying to hide her useful characteristic…impatience. Trust me, that is a compliment!!

You see, it was only a few short months ago when Laurie gave great pause to the thought of running for public office. Things for Laurie seemed to aligned with the moon and the stars. She had significant career momentum, spreading her financial regulatory skills from The Energy Capital to the Nation’s Capital. She had peace in her personal life and was in control of everything she touched. But you know, she was clearly concerned about the way Houston politics was being toyed with. 

So with the swift presence of her impatient tenacity, Laurie decided to put her calm life to the test, and make a charge for City Hall.

Laurie, you have in fact “Done Something About It!”
Win or loose tonight…we couldn’t be more proud of you!!

Brian Hall

As many of you know, I drew inspiration for starting Friday Harbour from my awesome older brother who had a valiant battle with cancer. “Tank” as we affectionately called him was, was a kind, funny and yes sometimes quirky older brother. We never really fought, and never really had that brother-to-brother “Leave it to Beaver” kinda moment either. As I recall, he was just so imply my big brother, who from time to time convince my mother that I didn’t really deserve that butt whippin, that I knew I did.

As the years went on, we slipped in and out of closeness, mainly because we lived 5 states away from each other. But whenever I saw him, he always had a reason to smile.

This week, I drew inspiration from a business colleague, turned friend. You see, she received the terrible news this past July and has been in her very own “valiant” fight. As we sat down for a glass of wine this week in Atlanta, I couldn’t help but see her inner faith, hope, promise and believe it or not, her true belief that she is blessed, even under the circumstances.

I’m sure that there were moments of pain and shear discomfort as we sat there and sipped wine and talked about her experience thus far. But what is amazing, is that this friend took every moment to praise, encourage and even challenge me to stay the course with Friday Harbour and “take it to the next level!”

I’m looking forward to her inspiration for many years to come!! Where will you find your inspiration?

My hat goes off to Scot Chisolm and Pat Walsh for a StayClassy.org event to remember. The 3rd Annual Classy Awards weekend in San Diego was perhaps the best NonProfit experience of in my life.

The environment was electric with do-gooders, life-changers and worldly thinkers. It warms my heart to know that so many Americans are using their talents, connections and dreams to hel ease the pain, struggle and burdens that face so many fellow Americans and people all over the world. 

I’m especially proud to now have Friday Harbour be a part of the event. Dubbed the “Emmy’s” of the NonProfit world.

Last night I took in a midnight stroll around the newly opened Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial.
Wow!
During the week and day prior to my visit, all I heard were the echoes of controversy surrounding everything from the position of the statue, the sculptors nationality, the script on the side and even the timing of it’s unveiling.

When you arrive at The Mall site, all I can say is that if you place your mind and consciousness in that moment, a brisk 1963 morning, you can’t help but to be taken to that moment where a nation and the world witnessed the dream of a people, shared through the poignant words of a man larger than life. Larger than life, yet grounded in the fight for justice. 

As I internalized the scripted granite walls, stretched to see the mountaintop, I took more than a moment to to remember a time in America when “Human Rights” were fought for.

As I quietly departed the larger than life monument to a fallen hero, I made a solemn promise to dedicate my life to leaving a lasting mark on this world. Will you join me? There’s plenty of room.

The funding from this program will go directly to our short-term housing program, where we provide 1-3 nights lodging to cancer patients in need at both MD Anderson and Texas Children’s Cancer Centers.

Friday Beacon donors may can have their donation withdrawn directly from their checking or savings accounts, charged to their credit or debit cards, or send payment monthly by check.
While other donations, gifts and services are welcome, this Friday Beacon program will provide Friday Harbour with the consistent monthly funding necessary to house hundreds of families throughout the year.
We invite you to become a Friday Beacon donor by either clicking the DONATE button above or contacting Brian Hall at 713-504-9557 or brian.hall@fridayharbour.org.