Way to go Tiffany! AIDS was originally known as Gay Cancer and later GRIDS. Baby Jessica Mcclure fell down a well causing the world as we know it to stop. In 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded prompting a slew of bad jokes. The one I recall was that NASA sttod for Not Another Seven Atronauts. (What do you want? I was in middle school and WHAM! was cool.) Because of this explosion, the American audiences finally came to known Richard Feynman after he demonstrated the o-ring failure at a press conference with a glass of cold water.


The 80s had some of the most famous, and infamous, PSAs including one famous actor's posthumous plea to quit smoking. (Name the actor. C'mon it's easy.) Rachel Leigh Cook's current frying pan PSA is actually a "remake" of this famed Just say no to drugs PSA from 1987. Furthermore the same campaign spawned this ad about a father son drug confrontation also in 1987, which was parodied what popular sitcom recently?

Station Break:

I'm taking a moment before I run to the dry cleaners to answer a moment to write about a Day of Blogs writing prompt most notably why I chose this charity. When I joined blogathon, I raised money for the American Heart Association in honor of my late father. During the 1996 'thon, I came across a fellower blogger who was blogging for a charity raising money to help children with Neuroblastoma. I was diagnosed with a neuroblastoma when I was 6 months old. I was paralyzed for the following three years, and while my childhood was marked by hospital visits and surgeries I have been cancer free since 1975. Because of the relative rarity of the cancer, I gave up on ever meeting a fellow sufferer until I came across this blog which featured page after after page of biographies with children facing the same cancer I had.

I contacted her to let her know about my experience and she asked if she could use my story for her blog. I was delighted to be of help, but more excited to discover that there was an online support group for parents and families coping with this disease. I know one of the hardest things for my parents was the feeling of isolation, that no one understood what they were going through. For me, having never met another child or adult survivor, it was like suddenly discovering a new family. Last year, I raised money for the Children's Neuroblastoma Cancer Foundation. I was emailed later by a mother who had unfortunately lost her child to neuroblastoma, but was filled with hope by my story and the blogathon.

I know first hand how horrifying this disease is, not just for the child, but also for friends, families, and communities. I won't spend time telling you about the more horrible aspects of what I faced, but I will tell you this-no one should have to go through that kind of pain, especially not a child, and no parent should have to watch his/her child go through it. While a "couple of thousand children" may not seem like a pressing problem to some, if you see what these children have to suffer in order to live, you know even one is too many. Furthermore, I was diagnosed in 1975. In the 32 years since my diagnosis,there is still no cure and children are often not diagnosed until after the cancer has progressed quite far. (In my case, I wasn't diagnosed until I was paralyzed from the shoulders down because my pediatrician was convinced my parents were just nervous first time parents with too much medical knowledge.)

So I'm supporting Band of Parents because the best hope for the thousands of children who face this disease is with private institutions and dedicated research funded by generous donors. So that someday soon there will be cure.