If you remember, last week I told you about Penelope, an adorable 11 month old little girl who was recently diagnosed with Stage 4 Neuroblastoma.  She has spent the last 3 weeks in Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego.  She has a private insurance policy that will only cover 60% of her very expensive treatments so her cousin Rhea from mommy23monkeys has been organizing a fundraiser auction with all of the proceeds going to help with the expensive medical bills.

Please visit Pennies4Penny.com beginning the morning of Friday, March 19th to have your chance to bid and win on some amazing products.  There are donations from over 30 companies and individuals and it should be lots of fun to support Penny in this way!

For more information visit momm23monkeys.

I’ll be there, will you?

Cancer sucks. It touches every single one of us in some way and has been a killer in my family. Yet I can’t even imagine what it would be like if my baby, MY BABY, had to fight this horrible disease. I am so fortunate to not have experienced this but Carina and Aaron just had their world shattered last month when they found out their 11 month old daughter Penelope has Stage 4 Neuroblastoma.

My friend Rhea at mommy23monkeys is a relative and has decided to take action to help her family with this fight. Please join Rhea as she floods twitter, facebook and blogs to get the word out about Penny, her situation and this devastating cancer TODAY, March 12th. She is also putting together an online auction so be on the lookout for a post from me about where and when so you can participate. If you have something you would like to donate please contact Rhea through her blog. (It will be tax deductible!)

To find out more about Penny, please visit Penny’s blog and see what Rhea is doing to help at mommy23monkeys.

Together we can make a difference in this family’s life, won’t you help?

No one likes talking about cancer. Certainly nobody enjoys trying to explain cancer to small children and yet in 2008 alone over 1.4 million cancer cases are diagnosed. Undoubtedly those people had family who loved them, some of them young children who were confused by the word cancer.

Someone I Love is Sick was created by The Gathering Place, a well-respected cancer support center in Ohio.  It is a customizable binder book with removable pages which adapt to multiple scenarios and allow you to add to the book over time, depending upon what your family is currently experiencing.

After a series of focus groups in October 2008 among professional caregivers, The Gathering Place had found that parents were often too preoccupied with their own diagnosis and overlooked the emotion needs of their children. They felt an ideal book for helping children would be customizable, age appropriate and emphasize visuals. Parent panelists appeared most concerned about their ability to communicate without creating fear or uncertainty. The books they had found were too grim or not age appropriate. Thus, Someone I Love is Sick was created to fill this void and was made with both a version for parents and grandparents.

I received the parents version to review. Thankfully we have no use for this at this time but I look forward to donating it locally to someone in need. This is a very well made book that will certainly stand up to hard times. The pages are laminated and won’t be easily ripped and are simple to add and remove.  A vinyl sleeve is also included to store unused pages. It is intended for ages 2-6 but the age range could easily be extended.

This book is illustrated with very simple images of children of all races who are sometimes doing very simple things like bringing Mommy some juice (above) or heavier subjects like picking out something of Daddy’s to keep (below). Subjects vary from treatment and hospital stays to missing their parent and noticing everyone is grumpy.

I will admit reading this wonderful tool was a bit heartbreaking. Cancer is prevalent in my family and imagining my children having to bear this heavy burden is heavy on my soul, especially with the last page stating “I will always have wonderful memories of Daddy.”  I wish that not a single child should have to go through this but the truth is, they do. They do every day and as hard as it may be, a child needs to understand and not feel scared. I think Someone I Love is Sick is a blessing for both the child and the parent who won’t have to wonder how to address a heavy subject like cancer.

This book has been endorsed by Lance Armstrong and members of the healthcare community. It would be fabulous for anyone you know currently in this situation or for donation at your local cancer center.  All proceeds support benefit those touched by cancer.

{ Giveaway }

I have a copy of Someone I Love is Sick for one of my readers in their choice of the parent or grandparent version.

MAIN ENTRY: Visit Someone I Love is Sick and tell me something you like about the book or site.

Want more entries? (I know you must!) After answering my question do any of the following and leave a comment telling me what you did. Each is worth one entry unless otherwise noted. Your comment is your entry so please leave the appropriate number of comments for each extra entry.

-Tell me what you would do with this book if you won
-Follow The Gathering Place on twitter
-Follow my blog publicly
-Subscribe to my feed in a reader or by email
-Follow me on twitter and tweet about this giveaway

Win “Someone I Love is Sick” a tool for kids to understand cancer @babylovingmama @touchedbycancer http://tinyurl.com/yhyq3wx #giveaway RT

-Fave me on Technorati
-Add my button to your blog
-Add my It’s in the Bag! event button to your bog
-Blog about this contest and link back here and to Someone I Love is Sick (3 entries)

This contest will end on 10/23/09 at 11:59 pm CST. U.S.  residents only. The winner will be drawn via random.org. The winner will have 72 hours to respond to winning notification email before I draw another winner or do a live giveaway.