Carmen Leolani White: It's been a while

Aloha to all,

This has been our longest period between posts since we started documenting Carmen's progress on May 26th.

Many of you have told me that you enjoy reading the blog and I appreciate all of your kinds words of encouragement to keep the blog going. As I reflect back on the early moments of finding out about Carmen and starting this blog it is clear that writing to all of you was as much therapy for me as it was informative to you. Both Heather and I, have tried our best to bring the best and worst moments to life for you. It means a lot to us that you continue to follow Carmen's journey.

The main reason for the long delay between posts is due to very good news.

Carmen's response to her treatment is amazing and she is fighting the fight every day like the TLP that she is.

All this means we are as busy as ever.

This post is longer than usual to bring you up to speed.

As always your thoughts and prayers continue to inspire our family and give us strength. Team White would be no where near strong enough without your love, support and quite honestly your generosity.

Nothing proved this more than what happened this weekend.

Two amazing young ladies, by the names of Kaitlin and Megan have truly touched the hearts of our family by their generosity towards Carmen's journey.

Each year, Kaitlin and Megan hold a fundraiser to support the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and this year, they decided to put their money towards "Friends of Carmen" and created a "Carmen's Angel" Bookmark to sell at their fundraiser. These incredible ladies have never met Carmen or our family.

Yesterday, Kaitlin and Megan attended the Whitby, Ontario Soccer Minifest and raised over $600 for Carmen.

From the bottom of our hearts, we would like to thank Kaitlin and Megan for their incredible support to our family.

See a few pictures of Kaitlin and Megan below;

Back on Kaua'i, this weekend we were also blessed and honored by the generosity of the "Ohana Momma's", which is an amazing group of Mommy's on the island of Kaua'i who are celebrating their three years. Thank you, to Roberta, Sharol and all the Ohana Mommy's for organizing such a terrific day at Poipu Beach Park. It was a fun day had by all.

Images of the day below;

It is hard to believe that Grandma Sandy and Auntie Debbie's visit is coming to an end this week. It has been so amazing having them here. Not only it is incredible having them here and wonderful for Carmen and Trevor but they have been a tremendous help to Heather and myself. Things have been so busy but we were finally able to visit the beach tonight for a sunset.

Grandma Sandy and Auntie Debbie have also allowed Heather and I to get out a few nights. One of these nights was an incredible evening of music. Our friend Amy Fraizer invited us to an amazing concert called Love, Hope, Strength, featuring artists who come together around the world to support the global fight on Cancer. Previous locations for this group of artists, prior to Kauai, has been the top of Mount Fuji, the base camp of Mount Everest, and the top of Kilimanjaro. A night like this is extremely rare on our little island and we made the most of it. Thank s for the fun night Tiff, Chris and Amy! Below is an image of John Oats as he got ready for his set.

All of the proceeds from the concert went to raising funds to create awareness and starting Bone Marrow Donor facilities.

Obviously this cause is close to our hearts as Bone Marrow and Stem Cell are two of the most critical methods of treatment for Leukemia and other blood cancers.

Many of you may not know how easy and pain free it is now to provide Bone Marrow. Finding a match for a patient in need of a Bone Marrow transplant is still less than 50%. This is mainly because most people do not put their marrow on the "list" due to the unknown. Many people think that providing marrow is painful and difficult. This is no longer the case.

Heather and I have learned a lot about this cause and truly hope that you will consider getting on the list. Being tested takes about 2 minutes and you can literally save multiple lives just by getting your name on "the list"

To learn more, I encourage you to visit,

www.lovehopestrength.org

I just spoke to Ferdie Gabat from www.bethematch.org and he gave me this code to put in when you register. aughi11 When you register, answer the questions, put in the code aughi11 and they will send you a swab kit. That is all you have to do! This is for U.S. Citizens 18-60 living in the states. Multi-ethnic children and adults have a 3% chance of finding a donor match. I think this is horrible! 50% of people who are discovered as "matches" end up saying no! Horrible! There are 10,000 people a year who need bone marrow transplants to live. Half will not survive. Unacceptable!

Please sign up, get swabbed and help save a life!

Love to all of you,

Team White

Some more photos to end this post...