On August 3rd, I will face the biggest physical challenge of my life: running the San Francisco Marathon! The training has been both grueling & exhilarating, with each Saturday long run a new achievement in distance for me. Before I started training 3 months ago, I had never run over 8 miles before, and the distance of 26.2 miles is more than 3x that amount. During my recent 21-mile run, I truly needed to muster up every bit of strength to just keep moving.
Through this marathon, I am running to raise funds for a documentary that I am Directing and Co-Producing with and about a young woman named Erica Murray. Erica has been facing even larger hurdles in her life with determination, strength and a great sense of humor. Yes, Erica has already run a marathon. But what she's facing is an arduous path much longer than 4 or 5 hours. Erica is living with leukemia, and for the past 2.5 years has persisted through indescribable lengthy and painful treatments of chemo and radiation. She's 29, similar to me, and this roadblock in her life is simply unfair. Just weeks ago, Erica received a necessary bone marrow transplant for her life. As a bi-racial individual, the search for the right donor was a difficult process, because very few minorities and mixed-race people have registered to donate their bone marrow stem cells.
Through the story of Erica's journey with leukemia, our documentary crew aims to bring awareness to the desperate need for bone marrow stem cell donations for leukemia patients, and specifically to compel people of mixed race and minority descent, to register to donate their bone marrow stem cells. This is now a VERY easy process that can save the life of someone with leukemia. My own grandmother died of leukemia, and my family personally understands this devastating disease.
So far, we have filmed 17 hours before, during and after Erica's big transplant, all with volunteer hours and personal funding. In order to continue with this documentary, we need financial support. Any amount will go a long ways during this initial stage! My goal is to raise $2000. 100% of the money will go towards the making of this documentary. Please help me achieve that goal by making a donation through this site:
http://www.globalnarratives.
If you can't make a financial donation, please consider registering to donate your bone marrow stems cells. It's now a much less painful process that can and will save someone's life! Also, an alternate way to donate is through a procedure that looks just like donating blood!
INFO on Donating:
www.marrow.org
Thank you very much for considering a donation to Global Narratives towards the Erica Murray documentary project!
Thank you,
Naomi Ture
Co-Producer/Director
Erica Murray
Co-Producer
2 comments:
Looking forward to seeing your efforts and creativity explode on camera! I know this is a bit jumping the gun, but I'd like a copy if I can get one. (I'll pay of course!) I have plans to solicit donors through campus events at CSUS and this would be a great way to reach alot of students. We also have about three blood drives a year and we could show this during the drive, which could hopefully encourage bonemarrow donors too! Keep us posted! WuCrew
http://www.katu.com/news/26465829.html
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