Hey, all.

As some of you know, Rink associate editor (emeritus?) Stephen Pepper has been an avid runner for quite a while, pounding the pavement of the big City (home to the reviled Rangers). But now he's putting his passion for running to far better use - he's raising funds to help find cures and better treatments for leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma by participating in the Bermuda Triangle Challenge Series from January 18-20, 2013 as a member of The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team In Training. The Triangle includes 1 mile race on Friday, 10K on Saturday, and full 26.2 mile marathon on Sunday.

By way of background, LLS is the world's largest voluntary health organization dedicated to funding blood cancer research, patient services, and education. Its mission is to cure these diseases and to improve the quality of life of our patients and their families. Today more than 900,000 Americans suffer from a blood cancer. Because of LLS' efforts, cure rates for blood cancers have been steadily rising. For example, in 1960, a child with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ACL) only had a 4% chance of survival - today a child with ALL has nearly a 90% chance. But even with the progress we have made, there is much critical, life-saving work left to be done.

So why is Pepper doing this? I'll let him explain, and follow it up with the pitch:

Simply put, I've been blessed with good health my entire life, and I recently became a father to a miraculously healthy and happy son, now bounding around like a toddler should. But I realize that some individuals, particularly parents and their children, don't have it so lucky, instead fighting relentlessly for their lives, or the lives of their children, against those blood cancers. So I'm showing my gratitude for my good fortune to do what I can to help them.

As a Team In Training participant, I have committed to raising $5,000. This is why I need your support. At least 78 cents of every dollar raised by Team In Training goes directly toward cancer research and patient support, one of the highest ratios among charitable organizations supporting medical research and treatment in the nation.

How your donation can help:

Here are some examples of how your donations help patients and their families:

• $50 will register 1 person to be a bone marrow donor.
• $75 will provide HLA (bone marrow) typing for a family member of a patient with leukemia.
• $100 will pay for the cost of 4 patients' chemotherapy drug prescription co-payments.
• $300 will train 25 peer volunteers who can provide emotional support to newly diagnosed patients.
• $1000 allows patients to meet with health care specialists to design and discuss their disease, treatment plan, and prepare them with the info they will need during the treatment process.
• $2000 provides patients with a one month supply of Gleevec, a life-saving treatment developed with LLS funding.

Speaking of which, research and development efforts are continually under way, but those in early stages are in dire need of financial support, support that big pharmaceutical companies are not always willing to provide. For example, Pepper mentioned last week an upcoming clinical trial involving a drug originally prescribed to treat foot fungus, but that may potentially impede the progression of a particularly fast-spreading blood cancer called acute myeloid leukemia (AML). A trial for patients with relapsed AML is now open, but it will cost approximately $1 million to fund the trial. Pepper's NYC Chapter team alone could raise this amount in this season, with your support.

Anyway, both Pepper and I would be so grateful for your donation in support of his efforts with Team In Training to help advance the research for cures. Just think of it as money you might have otherwise spent on hockey, except this actually would go to people doing some good for the world.

If you would like to donate online, please visit Pepper's fundraising page here. If your company matches charitable donations, please include matching forms with your donation. (If you have any questions about securing matching donations, please contact Pepper and he'll help you.) And if you

We truly will appreciate any support you can provide!

With my sincere thanks,

JP

Please donate here