Tyler Ferris was born to Mark Ferris and Kim Forsythe, long-term ex-pat residents of Japan. Less than a month into life, Tyler was diagnosed with cancer (acute lymphoblastic leukaemia to be precise). After a valiant 22-month struggle, he died in June 2005. Tyler spent many, many months of his short life in hospital. He was by all accounts an incredibly cheerful and happy toddler with a joy for life and a knockout smile.
Having experienced the stresses and strains of Tyler’s illness and extended periods of hospitalization, and ultimately the grief of his death, Mark and Kim decided to ensure that Tyler’s battle would not have been lost in vain. They set up the Tyler Foundation to support children with cancer and their families in Japan.
The Tyler Foundation has many goals and activities to ease the suffering of childhood cancer patients and their families. Foremost among them is to create Shine On House, "a support centre accommodating local Japanese and expatriate families with pediatric patients afflicted with cancer. Shine On House will aim to provide short and long term (1-2 years) accommodation, counseling space, daily and weekend care; and activities for siblings of patients."
Tyler’s mother, Kim, said, “Tyler spent more than his fair share of time in the ICU during his two years of treatment…and my husband and I spent too many nights sleeping in hospital waiting rooms wishing something like the Shine On House was available as an alternative. Other families of children with cancer, doctors, and adult cancer survivors echo again and again how this type of facility is desperately needed in Japan.”
On the 17th February, 2008 I will be running the Tokyo Marathon in support of the Tyler Foundation and, specifically, it's Shine on House project. If you would like to sponsor me with a small donation to this tremendous cause, I and the Tyler Foundation would greatly appreciate your sacrifice. It really does not need to be much because as the Australian singer/songwriter Paul Kelly once said, “From little things, big things grow.” My pledge page is here.
With sincere thanks,
Steve
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7 comments:
Steve the hyperlinks on this post are broken.
They work in my browser. Can anybody else let me know if they don't work.
Incidentally, "From Little Things..." has nothing to do with childhood cancer, but the anthem seems to fit the situation here.
OK now steve don't know what happened but there weren't working the first time I checked.
I'm going to give a little as I can appreciate the help a foundations like this could give parents in this situation.
Nothing worse than having a sick kid, that's for sure.
Hi Steve,
Last year the PCRG raised money for the same cause (but here in Brisbane) for support to families with kids with cancer. Pats partner Sue lost her little boy when he was only 2 and she utilised a respite house near the hospital at the time but it needs money to keep going.
Anyhow, I am keen to support you but I have no idea about foreign currency. I was going to do $2 for every km you do at goal pace. (an incentive for you to run hard...)
Can you let me know how many Y that will be??
Keep up the good work.
You are right, what an amazing smile the little guy had!
I was going to ask something similar to Clairie, how does an Aussie or American dollar relate to a yen?
Thank you for you support!
100 yen = $1
1000 yen = a bit less than $10
etc
Clairie, I promise I will run at least 20 km at 4:10/km, but that's a bit too much to expect. If you made it 100 yen for each of those km I would be more than happy. The page seems to suggest that you need to make the payment by the 15th of Feb to make the pledge count, and that is before the race unfortunately.
Thanks heaps,
Steve
I'll follow Clairie's idea. I reckon you can last at least as long as Kayoko Fukushi did at goal pace, so 100 yen for each km at 4:10s.
Good cause Steve. I had to find out a bit about that song.
I hope the taper is going well.
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