That time of year!

 Dear friends, each year, when Move For Melanoma comes around (September 27 to 29 this year) I participate in fundraising to help Canadian OM patients get to treatment. The picture is much brighter now than it has ever been as there is an approved and widely available treatment for metastatic disease and several promising clinical trials. Right now, we are helping ten OM patients to participate in clinical trails in Canada.

I have stepped back from my leadership role in Ocumel Canada but I still feel strongly about supporting fellow patients. When you are dealing with a frightening cancer diagnosis, you need friends to lean on. If you are able to help this year, please check out my page:

https://saveyourskin.akaraisin.com/ui/2024moveformelanoma/p/6c815032df3240c1844670d4d9df8574

Thank you for the financial and moral support.  Peace and love, Nigel

Move For Melanoma 2023

 Dear friend, while I have stepped back from day to day involvement with Ocumel Canada, I still care deeply that ocular melanoma patients are able to access treatment. And so I find myself once again asking people to help raise funds so that patients can get to the four treatment centres in Canada, wherever they live.  

 

Ocumel Canada and Save Your Skin Foundation are the only organization in Canada that helps ocular melanoma patients financially. We have spent $40 000 in the first six months of 2023 doing just that. Please have a look at my fundraising page and help if you can. Thank you. I deeply appreciate your generosity.  Peace and love, Nigel

https://saveyourskin.akaraisin.com/ui/2023moveformelanoma/p/04b046c23a1446448e769b437f87cd5b

Move For Melanoma

For several years now, when Move For Melanoma weekend comes around (Sept 23-25), I have asked friends and family to help me raise funds for Ocumel Canada so that we can help ocular melanoma patients access treatment. In this special year, when there is finally a Health Canada approved treatment for metastatic ocular melanoma, please consider joining my team or making a donation. Your generosity will be deeply appreciated by patients.

Please take a moment to visit my page:

https://saveyourskin.akaraisin.com/ui/moveformelanoma2022/p/5770a0562fdf437a87c3c90861a50b9a

Moving for Melanoma 2021

 

Dear friends,

 

https://youtu.be/QZ67t8vDOHA

A year ago I asked for support in raising funds so that Ocumel Canada can support Canadian patients. Thank you to the many people, all over the world, for your generosity and kindness. I couldn't believe it!

We have had a wonderful and productive year, thanks to the incredible support you gave. We now have a detailed report on the issues that face ocular melanoma patients across the country.

 

https://saveyourskin.ca/wp-content/uploads/SYSF-Ocular-Melanoma-Survey-Report.pdf

 

The biggest difficulty they face, if they live far from the four treatment centres, is travel costs which are often not covered my medical or private health plans. On Wednesday we were asked if we would cover the hospital costs for three out of province patients who need to start a new treatment in Toronto which has just become available, the first of its kind and the first good news we have ever had for patients with metastasis. We immediately said yes and will now try to change the system so patients are not discouraged from seeking treatment. We help the patient first and then advocate for change.

We now have a private Facebook group with over 100 Canadian patients in it so we can hear their concerns and share information. This builds community where previously there was none. We are learning to support each other.

And so, I am asking again if you are able and willing to help fund our activities as we continue our work. Every dollar we raise goes to cover patient costs. None of it goes to admin or other expenses.

Have a look at my fundraising page this year and please consider helping out.

 

https://saveyourskin.akaraisin.com/ui/moveformelanoma2021/p/66ce5f2cba6b4f2a97e485637e0c7e56

 

 And here is another story of a young man in North Vancouver whom we have helped.

 

https://saveyourskin.ca/laurence-story/?fbclid=IwAR0XuCRdAf79ff8CTBphigDjtZmge2zcTHBxtKMvP4ymnRPAxk7a38hTsMM

 


With gratitude,   Nigel

                                     Christmas 2020  The strangest Christmas of all

 

Dear friends and family, 

 

This has been a year like no other, unless you survived 1918 and have lived to 102! If you are reading this, like me, you have almost made it  through a global pandemic. Hang in there! Two million have not made it through and those are only the ones who got counted. So, I am even more glad than ever before to be alive and to watch the first vaccines arrive at our airports just in time for Christmas.

 

Merry Christmas especially to all of the scientists who have scrambled to do 10 years’ work in 10 months. I hope they can all have a beautiful and celebratory Christmas with close family.

 

And families will spend a lot of time together this Christmas!  Where I live, we can only be with immediate family, so I will be on my own, a first. It will be perfect. More gregarious Christmases will return and be cause for great joy.

 

In many ways, it has been a year that has been a long time coming. We have been taking good luck for granted.  Peace and prosperity are not a given. We have to work hard for both. Widespread world peace for 75 years has been an extraordinary interlude. Imagine enjoying all of it! How lucky can one get!

 

And this is really what is uppermost in my mind. We are a fairly simple species. Together we have imagined an amazing world and then created it all around us. But the greatest work of all, nature itself, has been abuilding for a lot longer than homo sapiens. It will remain after us even though we seem hellbent on destroying the exquisite balance that has allowed so many organisms to coexist. 

 

Below, you will see what brings me the greatest joy this Christmas - a new life, hope for the future, just like Christmas 2000 years ago.  Welcome Rory Rhys Laurel Deacon!

 

Here’s wishing everyone I know, and those I don’t, a peaceful Christmastide and a promise of good health and happiness in the New Year.  With love, Nigel

 

 

Summer 2020

 It is a long time since I put pen to paper. I was having the time of my life and a global pandemic swept in!  Although I have been alive for a long time, I have not seen a global pandemic before. How extraordinary that a tiny virus can sweep all around the world like lightning, penetrate the remotest of places  and bring everyday life to a halt. As we watch it play out, we can see the shift as the virus, which emerged in prosperous societies, moves into disadvantaged groups who do not have the protection of sophisticated medical systems and adequate social protection. A virus has no consciousness and cannot be kind, but we can. I spend most of my time now figuring out what it means to be kind in this new world. It is not so easy. 

 

One way that I have been able to continue to be kind is to keep working at building support for people who, out of the blue, get diagnosed with ocular melanoma. I continue to be extraordinarily well and strong, but that is not the normal journey.  Ocumel Canada, from modest beginnings in January 2019, has gone from strength to strength. We now have a private Facebook group of more than 70  Canadian patients. My original dream was that I could find maybe 10 people! Every week we attract new members, mostly through word of mouth. We are about to publish the first report ever on ocular melanoma services across Canada. We are just starting to organize a global symposium on ocular melanoma that will bring experts and patients from all corners of the  world together. For me, that is what kindness looks like at the moment.

If you would like to lend a hand, I am starting an annual fundraising campaign so that we can continue and expand our advocacy. All contributions go the helping patients. There are no overheads. My time and creativity are free!

Sending peace and love to all,  Nigel

https://saveyourskin.akaraisin.com/ui/moveformelanoma2020/participant/5218425?Lang=en-CA

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The Year That Was

Christmas is nigh and a new year will follow quickly on its heels. Time flies, ever faster. Goodness, I almost feel dizzy! At times, I feel I am the luckiest person on earth. Next year I will mark the tenth anniversary of a dire cancer diagnosis. How could I possibly be still here?

2019 has been a splendid year in my life. Almost everything seems to have gone right. I spent the early part of the year giving my NZ sister a hand as she got a new hip. She is now flying on all cylinders again!

Ocumel Canada launched in January. The idea had been hatching for some time. I have met some extraordinary people on my cancer journey. While cancer may have hurt them or their loved ones, they have found ways to change the conversation, advocate for change and build hope. I continue to come across Canadians who get an ocular melanoma diagnosis and need support and encouragement as they try to figure out the best way forward. The more we work together, the faster the storyline will take on a positive tone. This horrible disease will yield to science and hope. I feel the change happening.

In the Fall my son got married in Sorrento, on the Amalfi Coast, a dream wedding in a dream location. I also took the opportunity  to check in with all of my far flung siblings and some very good friends. I even got to spend time in Ethiopia with a new member of my family! We explored the Roof of Africa, a spectacular and extraordinary place, full of rain and cloud and exotic flora and fauna. Ethiopia is on the threshold of an extraordinary renaissance, constrained only by the old enemies, ignorance, poverty and ethnic nationalism. Will the dream come true? Will a new, prosperous democracy emerge on the last continent to prosper? I will hope for that.

And so, 2020 will soon be here. May you and your loved ones be happy to greet it and may you enjoy family and friends over the coming days. Life really is what we make it! 

Love and peace always,  Nigel