Well, you can call me “crazy”, “gutsy”, or “a lunatic”, but I took a leap of faith and sent the letter below to the Director of EVERY Comprehensive Cancer Center listed on a website in the U.S.A. !!! I’d like to thank each and every one of them who did, perhaps, tell someone about the site, even just ONE person, because that is how the world works: I tell you, and you tell someone else, and it goes from there. So, without further “ado”, here it is:
Dear Doctor, December 1, 2011
Hi, I hope this letter finds you having a good day, and thank you for taking the time to read it as well. I would like to introduce you to the idea of injecting laughter into the world of cancer, and to ask you for some help. I am a cancer survivor who has created two websites for collecting and sharing people’s stories of what made them laugh during their cancer journey. This is, also, where I need your help, please. The sites are completely not for profit (I generate no income from them), and are run solely by me. They are: www.canshare.net for youth, and one for adults too (yes, they are a play on the word “cancer” ).
All that I would like to politely request from you is to help me share the sites with others via an email to your staff and/or perhaps ask someone to write about them for your center newsletter (I would be happy to write it too!). A few minutes out of your hectic schedule and busy day to let others know about the sites, please. True story: I Googled “cancer jokes” when I was undergoing chemotherapy and found only oddball corny jokes. I wanted to find firsthand jokes or accounts about it all and could not. Hence, the idea for these sites was born.
I hope, via my “grassroots efforts” of “word of mouth”, to get people interested in sharing their stories with the sites. I am also hoping that by this same effort they will be there for people to laugh at the collected stories on the day they need to laugh too.
Thank you for your time, attention, and, if you choose to do so, sending word out about these websites, rather than just crumpling up this letter and pretending it never crossed your desk. LOL !!! Either choice you make is fine with me, as I will continue to be the single voice in the wind hollering, “Hey, cancer patients everywhere, join me in laughing today, because it sure feels better than crying!!”
All the best to each and every one of you and have a great day!!
Sincerely,
Dara Insley/cancer comedian (sounds cool, doesn’t it, haha!!)
Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Canshare/217075921660099
Copyright 2011 (The Canshare website and commentary (noted as Canshare) is the intellectual property of Dara Insley.)