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Slay The Dragon by =e-CJ:icone-CJ:

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©2007-2009 =e-CJ
:icone-cj:

Artist's Comments

This stamp was created for Sarcoma awareness. Specifically Leiomyosarcoma. Please help promote awareness by adding this to your favorites and putting it in your journal or stamp collection. Then read on…

Here are a few facts about Leiomyosarcoma

Leiomyosarcoma is a malignant smooth muscle tumor that most often occurs deep inside the organs of the body where detection and diagnosis is very difficult. It is also known to be very aggressive; meaning that by the time it is found it is not uncommon to find that it has already spread to distant sites.

As a part of the larger group of Sarcomas, which includes all connective tissue cancers, it accounts for less than 1% of all cancers, but Leiomyosarcoma itself affects just four of every one million people who get cancer. Between 9000 and 12000 people will find they have a Sarcoma in any given year. It is an equal opportunity cancer affecting men and women in approximately equal numbers and broadly cast amongst the populations of every nation and ethnic group. About 15% of all childhood cancers are Sarcomas. Because of its rarity and diversity relatively little is known about how to successfully treat Sarcoma. Conducting studies is also increasingly difficult due to the recent (February 2007) severe cuts in government funding that have forced the suspension of many Sarcoma research projects. With that in mind private funding is becoming an attractive alternative. Well, just about the only alternative.

Since there are not that many of us, we must each work vigilantly to keep the search for a cure alive.

So, I am asking for your help in support of my efforts to make a dent in the void. There are a lot of little things we can do that can add up to something significant. I ask that you would do whatever you can to help. Here is a list of a few of those little things.

1. Order prints from CJ’s Print Shop. [link] All proceeds go into a special fund that is periodically emptied to make a donation to a worthy organization that is engaged in Sarcoma research. “CJ’s Smiles For Life Fund” was started in 2006 to support finding a cure for Sarcoma and has already provided over $1000 to these organizations.

2. Make direct donations to an organization that is involved in Sarcoma research to find a cure, purchase art and gifts from CJ's Leiomyosarcoma Shops or use CJ's Zazzle link to buy any of millions of items at Zazzle that will make a donation to CJ's Smile's Fund. All of these things can be done from the link here. [link]

3. Promote awareness, as mentioned above, by adding this deviation to your favorites and the thumbnail code to your stamp collection :thumb67112509: and asking people to click on it for more information about how they can help too.

4. If you have other ideas for ways you would like to help, note me or click on the logos in any of my web sites to open a direct e-mail message.

My own relationship to Leiomyosarcoma is this. I am one of the few lucky people with LMS to achieve remission for more than a very short time. I enjoyed nearly two years of remission before the discovery of active cancer growth in a routine CT scan on February 26th, 2008. Chances of long-term survival are, at this point, very low, but I am not ready to kick the bucket yet. At the current level of research and medical technology even stage 4 cancer is manageable for lengths much longer than just a few years ago.

If you would like to find out more about Leiomyosarcoma, please visit my Sarcoma resource page at [link] You can also learn more about my “Smiles” fund to support sarcoma research there or read the accounting of my journey with cancer.

About Dawn's dragon. The dragon design used in the stamp and my LMS logo was painted by my daughter :iconfawxcat: ~FawxCat the first weeks after I received the initial diagnosis in 2006. Her original deviation is here [link]

Comments


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:iconpixlepixie:
Mood: Wow! =pixlepixie Oct 22, 2007, 1:14:41 PM
That is very touching. :aww:
And what a clever name- I really like it.
I wish you all the best with this campaign and of course your remission! What a strong person!:hug:

--
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:icone-cj:
=e-CJ Oct 22, 2007, 9:22:03 PM
Thank you so much for the kind comment.

The name "Slay the Dragon" comes from an annual event done by the Sarcoma Foundation that the proceeds from my art have been going to. The name "CJ's Smiles For Life" comes from the fact that I do portraits and up until now it was the proceeds from my portrait work that supported the "Smiles" fund. I just began doing landscape photography as a solo art form since the fund was named. I didn't know which name you were referring to, so I decided to follow the thread both ways.

Thanks for the fave too. It help get the word out. Awareness that is very much needed when dealing with such a rare disease. :hug:

--
Smiles, CJ

Visit My Home Page, Leiomyosarcoma Resource Pages & CJ's "Smiles" for Life Shops
:icone-cj:
=e-CJ Oct 22, 2007, 9:23:36 PM
Oops, I commented in the wrong place. See my reply above. :hug:

--
Smiles, CJ

Visit My Home Page, Leiomyosarcoma Resource Pages & CJ's "Smiles" for Life Shops
:iconpixlepixie:
=pixlepixie Oct 23, 2007, 9:35:42 AM
They're all great names! :D
Hopefully this will bring lots of awareness towards this particular cancer.

:aww:

--
:)
would you like feedback on your art? Try either of these two great clubs:
Project Reciprocation:[link]
and
Gimme Feedback:[link]
:icondbestarchitect:
=dbestarchitect Feb 25, 2008, 12:32:12 PM
Great job! I like making people aware ^^

--
:la: Guns don't kill people. BULLETS KILL PEOPLE! :dummy:

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:icone-cj:
=e-CJ Feb 25, 2008, 4:07:36 PM
And I thank you for that. This is a very rare cancer so most people don't know about it, even at the cancer center where I am treated they know so little that I find myself having to explain to them what it is most of the time. Makes finding a cure look less hopeful, but there is always hope and awareness is the first step. The proceeds from the sales of my prints is hardly even a small dent in the funding needed to find a cure, but I am determined to do as much as I possibly can. Your diplaying my stamp in your journal or shoutbox helps spread the awareness of this mission. I appreciate it so much...:hug:

--
Smiles, CJ

Visit My Home Page, Leiomyosarcoma Resource Pages & CJ's "Smiles" for Life Shops
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