The Yellow Brick Road

So me and my sisters, Dana and Casandra, were texting one lazy Saturday afternoon and came up with this great idea. We were talking about how in the past year I did:

a magazine interview:

(pgs 40-41: http://issuu.com/secondwind/docs/nhm_oct_2014-web2e=4001684/9891267)

a radio interview:

(see parts 1 and 2 of podcasts dated 8/15/15: http://www.943wybc.com/Episodes.aspx?PID=2770)

and a television interview:

(http://networkconnecticut.com/2015/07/colon-cancer-was-no-match-for-lajeune-hollis/)

two of the three interviews centered around my colon cancer experience. Then Dana said, let’s put together a colon cancer fundraiser in my (Lajeune) name and we all agreed it should involve water, a good time and people. We immediately thought: why not a cruise!  Here is where the ‘Yellow Brick Road’ kicked in: Dana is a part-time travel consultant so everything involving the cruise travel plans would come out of her agency – Cruise Planners; Casandra is a part-time Quilt Artist so she could create 2 colon cancer survival quilts to raffle off; and I am a colon cancer survivor with a real wish to help others, so Voila, the Lajeune Hollis Cancer Survivors Cruise was born!  We decided on the month of June in 2016, since June is Cancer Survivor’s Month.  We thought it would be nice if everyone wore white on the last night of the cruise which could represent Survivorship and Life.  And we imagined a Carnival Sunshine Cruise to Canada/New England made the most sense as it’s an affordable, good time that is popular with our target demographic, middle-aged adults.   By the way, the interior cabins start at just $569…

We leave out of NYC June 30th – July 4th so there is no airfare involved. We are adding $50 to each cabin, which will go directly to CCCF, who “has been working since 2003 to fund screening programs for the uninsured and provide much-needed funds to young investigators who are committed to finding a cure for colorectal cancer.”  Dana initially contacted the Colon Cancer Challenge Foundation (CCCF) and sent them my colon cancer survival story blog.  She suggested that I call them myself and share my story.  I spoke on the phone with their Director of Communications (Cindy) and explained my story. After I finished Cindy confided in me that the timing couldn’t have been better as one of the main priorities at CCCF this year concerned the African-American Community who are dying of Colon Cancer (one of the most preventable cancers!) quicker than any other ethnic group. Cindy explained that this is happening because African-Americans are not going to see their doctors on a regular basis so when they do finally come in, the diagnosis is much worse than it would have been. I agreed to allow her to post my colon cancer survival blog in their CCCF Fall newsletter and she asked to be kept in the loop on our upcoming Colon Cancer Cruise so she could get us additional publicity by including it in their newsletter!  Cindy also mentioned that she would be more than happy to provide us with information on early detection for colon cancer which we could hand out on the cruise.  Stay tuned as me and my sisters are happily skipping down the Yellow Brick Road as we speak!