Thursday, September 4, 2008

Ready to go…

Well time sure does go by fast, it seems like just yesterday that I was setting up my website and beginning my campaign. Now summer is over, kids are back in school and in less than a month I’ll be leaving for China. I made my final payment to Beike Biotechnology yesterday and our flight reservations are all confirmed. I leave Calgary on October 2nd and arrive in Hangzhou October 5th and enter the hospital that day.

People ask me if I’m getting nervous but I’m more excited than anything. I know October 2nd will be here in no time meaning I have very little time to raise additional funds. So far my total is $28,500 which is awesome but not quite enough. I am having another fund raiser September 13th at the Wildfire located in Langdon. There will be another silent auction and hopefully a great turnout. I don’t think I’ll raise as much as my first fundraiser but hopefully I can hit $4,500 to pay down what I’ve put on my credit card so far. I know I’ll still have many thousands in expenses to come. At least I’ve paid for the hospital and treatments because that has always been a bit of an uncertainty since it had to be in US funds. Fortunately our Canadian dollar has been up and even above par but of course it fluctuates daily. I’ve been exchanging currencies as I’ve had it and watched the dollar carefully. I was able to exchange $6,000 at an even rate but not as lucky on the rest. It cost me almost $1,900 in Canadian dollars to pay Beike in US dollars.

In other news, it looks like I’ll be getting additional media coverage from CTV. They are running a follow up story to a bone marrow transplant story they aired last year. In doing some background research one of the associates from W-Five came across my blog and emailed me. I should be doing my first interview September 18th or 19th and then they will follow my progress and treatment in China. CTV will be setting my sister up with a camera for shooting while in the hospital so this is all very exciting! The W-Five episode will not air until I return from China but may be beneficial if I still need to raise funds to pay off loans and debts from the trip. I think it will run as an hour long program with the last half hour dedicated to my story. I will be posting information when this is going to happen.

Hopefully there will still be people reading my blog! I will be posting progress updates while I’m in China on a regular basis so stay tuned.

LC

1 comment:

innage said...

Hi there Lee &TK:
Avidly reading your blogs and following your progress, you sound real upbeat and experiencing new scenarios and treatments daily.
Keep your spirits up and the best of luck, you are in Gods hands now, he knows what is best for you.
Lots of love
Ken & Trudy