"A
Cause for Concern: How do you change the world?"
Sponsored by Enchanted Book
Tours and Intisar Khanani, author of “Sunbolt”
Welcome
to Books, Books, and More Books. I am
pleased to share this book with you.
Thank you for visiting and please come again. Return on July 5, 2013 for my review of Sunbolt.
I love that this author and publisher are interested in making the
world a better place. In fact, they are
so interested they are willing to put their money where their mouth is and make
a donation to a charity on someone’s behalf.
As a person I find that wonderful, as a blogger I am overwhelmed at how
my little blog can make a difference.
There are so many issues that impact my life right now, that
narrowing down to one and choosing it as the most important was a difficult
journey in and of itself. You see I have
many health issues. I have been unable
to work for the past 7 years due to fibromyalgia and, now, Rheumatoid
Arthritis. As you can imagine, these
issues are very important in my life. In
addition, my son has high functioning Autism, which makes that another concern
near and dear to me. I have a cousin who
has a mitochondrial disease, one who dies of hydrocephalus and one of microcephalus. All
of these things concern me and are issues in my life.
I have worked with senior, the disabled, abused children,
Alzheimer’s disease, and many other terrible issues, yet today as I reflect on
all the good and bad in my life I realize that right this moment the thing I am
most thankful for and concerned about is cancer and cancer treatment.
You see my dad had very serious squamous cell skin cancer 17 years
ago. He had major surgery that included
a complete jaw reconstruction and remake of his chin and lower lip. The cancer he had was aggressive and another
patient who had similar cancer at the same time and refused the aggressive treatment
he had only lived six months. My dad had
been cancer-free for over 16 years. My
kids got to spend lots of time with grandpa (“Papa”) and they wouldn’t have had
that without the amazing cancer research that is going on.
Now we face another crisis because my father has cancer
again. This time it is lung cancer that
has spread to his brain. He has a large
tumor in his lung and 4 in various parts of his brain. This recent diagnosis has been
heart-wrenching for my family. However,
because of our experiences with cutting edge research, my family doesn’t go
into mourning and berate what has happened.
We hit the internet and start researching treatment centers, cutting
edge research, alternative treatments, and such. We trust that the research being done is
going to help, and we enter into his treatment as informed as possible. We question, challenge, and above all never
give up. This is the most important
thing I can think of as a cause for concern in my life right now. Not only the cancer treatment and research,
but the never give up and always look for the answer attitude.
So along with Intisar Khanani and Enchanted Book Tours, I ask…What
would you do or better yet, What do you do to change the world? Even one person can change the world for the
better.
"A
Cause for Concern" celebrates the release of Sunbolt, a YA
fantasy novella by Intisar Khanani. Sunbolt tells
the story of Hitomi, a young woman with a propensity to play hero when
people need saving, and her nemesis, a dark mage slowly amassing power in
a bid to control the Eleven Kingdoms. Stories often have an issue at their
heart, however big or small, global or personal. This week offers a chance for
bloggers (and readers) who love stories to share the issues that are close to
their hearts. What do you wish you could change in the world?
~~~~~~
Book Purchase Links
Add Sunbolt on GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17317370-sunbolt
Connect with Intisar on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/booksbyintisar
This cause
for concern if the bloggers own and in no way reflects the view of the author
or Enchanted Book Tours, although their concerns may be similar.
I'm so sorry to hear about your Dad. Your family has a wonderful attitude about not giving up, and searching for whatever treatment is available, but still, it must be hard on you. I hope you find something to help your Dad, and that all ends well. Thanks for posting this!
ReplyDeleteHi Mindy,
ReplyDeleteI am deeply impressed by the strength and courage in your post, as well as your family's approach to your father's illness. Cancer is an incredibly difficult and long road to walk. My father-in-law developed cancer about five years ago; he underwent over a year of treatment but eventually decided to discontinue it based on the prognosis. Cancer prevention and treatment is a vitally important research field; thank you for sharing so much of your life in bringing attention to it. I will be thinking of you and your family in the coming months, and I wish your father strength and a full recovery. Thanks for taking part in A Cause for Concern!
Thank you both for your kind comments. I am very lucky that my dad is very positive and convinced that he will beat this as he has his other health hurtles in the past few years. No matter what happens we are blessed to have wonderful, praying friends and family.
ReplyDelete