Raising Awareness and Funds for CDH1 Research

In our last post we talked about how our focus has shifted to raising awareness and funds for CDH1/Hereditary Diffuse Gastric Cancer research. Our biggest hope is Dr. Parry Guilford, a researcher in New Zealand who is working on a drug that would be taken every 2-4 years to kill off early cancer cells in the stomach, meaning a prophylactic total gastrectomy would no longer be the course of preventing HDGC in people with CDH1 mutations. We have three little boys who have a 50/50 chance of carrying our same CDH1 mutation and in about 7 years the first of these boys will be tested to see if they are a carrier. While we are so grateful we had the option of removing our stomachs when we found out about the mutation, we obviously want better for our children. Dr. Guilford is confident in the research his team is doing and truly believes our children will have better options than we had. It takes a lot of money and time to bring a drug to market, so we want to help provide funds for this project and also let the world know about advancements taking place in this field.

Thanks to my talented cousin-in-law Kristi Sasser we have a great t-shirt designed and we are ready to start taking orders! Here is an image of the shirt and it will be on a periwinkle, Gildan brand t-shirt since perwinkle is the color associated with gastric cancer awareness. We love the seahorse image, as the seahorse does not have a stomach and sustains itself by eating round the clock, just like us! The cost for the shirts is $15 for sizes Youth XS – Adult XL and $17 for Adult 2X & 3X. For people in the Birmingham, Hartselle, Tuscaloosa and Talladega areas we can arrange a time to meet and distribute shirts, but we will also offer shipping for a flat $2.50 rate. Payment can be made to myself or Nicole via cash, check, or PayPal. We will take orders from now until Wednesday, October 19th and we will need payment to be in by that date as well. The shirts should be ready for delivery by Monday, November 7th.  You can order by commenting on this post or by emailing me directly at jessica.j.sasser913@gmail.com. Please let us know what sizes you need, if you will need your shirts shipped and how you would like to arrange payment. All of the proceeds made from the selling of these shirts will be sent straight to Dr. Guilford and his team at the Center for Transitional Cancer Research at the University of Otago.

We are so excited about our first fundraising project and hope you all love the shirt as much as we do and support this effort. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me or Nicole if you have any questions about the shirts or ordering.