Pink in the Park with Friends!

http://www.pinkinthepark.com/

Did you get a chance to head down to Center City in Greensboro NC on September 26 to find the most fantastic display of tents and tables and pink ribbons and most importantly women and men supporting each other because their lives or someone they love has been touched by Breast Cancer.

Battling Life Together was honored to be a part of this event and already setting the date for next year. What a joyous occasion to meet and greet with such a fine group of people coming together for a similar cause.

BLT joined hands and displayed many resources and gave away a comfort package while at the event. We spoke to friends and made some new ones. Shared our resources and picked up a few we could use ourselves. http://www.healthmonitor.com/ & http://www.happychemo.com/partners/battling-life-together/

This is what life should be about... helping others. Sharing our 'resources' that may be time, money, physical goods, knowledge and sometimes just a simple hug or a smile. '

We are looking forward to the next big event also in Greensboro where a few of the BLT members and supporters will be sporting our pink shirts again to run/walk/crawl in the Womens Only 5k Saturday October 5th. We hope you can join us. http://womensonlyrun.com/run/

Don't forget to pick up a Guilford County Women's Journal the October edition will be hitting the shelves real soon and Celeste and her team always do a great spread for Cancer Awareness. This October BLT will again be part of the resources given to women in the community. http://gcwjournal.com/

Another upcoming event for BLT and many ladies fighting to support Susan G Komen please come out and visit 10/18/13 12:00-7p.m. Pink for a Purpose - BLT supports all colors!

https://www.facebook.com/PinkForAPurpose2013

Battling Life Together: Guilford County Women's Journal Helping Change Lives

Battling Life Together: Guilford County Women's Journal Helping Change Lives

Guilford County Women's Journal Helping Change Lives

The Battling Life Together Community has been more than blessed by the outpouring of support received from our friends, neighbors, businesses and most importantly the BLT Soldiers themselves. What we are promoting, living and providing continues to come full circle. We are receiving the kindness and comfort from those around us so that we may share and pay it forward to those who need it. We have been honored to be part of the Guilford County Women's Journal this summer, they graciously provided us with a space in their magazine and at least once a week someone says "hey I saw you in a magazine when I went to the doctor..." GCWJ is a household name and BLT says thank you to them and to Andrea MacDiarmid a friend from the beginning who shared our journey with Celeste and her team! http://gcwjournal.com/

As we quickly approach Christmas our thoughts move toward who can we help this year. Who's Christmas will be provided by BLT and the community? Thankful for all we have been able to do and still looking to the future to see how many more people we can provide for.

The smallest gestures can be contagious and can move mountains. What kind gesture will you share today?

Thanks to everyone who continues to support BLT and our mission, Together We Will Make a Difference!

Those we meet along the way

Battling Life Together continues to grow and continues to touch the lives of people in many states. Our mission to have a positive impact on society is contagious and promising. The impact of those we touch and those experiencing the possibilities of how just a few people from a small section of NC can influence the lives of so many is overwhelming. 

Just a few months ago a young lady reached out to BLT because she found our organization through a mutual friend on Facebook and found we share a common bond. What we didn't know then was how our lives would link together in such a positive and powerful way.

Elysia Skinner Quinn was just starting an organization called Strength and Hope when she contacted BLT- 

https://www.facebook.com/StrengthAndHopeFoundation

Also take a look at:
http://www.strengthandhope.org/

The Mission of Strength and Hope is:

The Strength and Hope Foundation was created to 
support cancer survivors through partnerships with other organizations that address the unique issues survivors face. We look to direct funds to survivorship programs and collaborate with other agencies to provide information to survivors, their caregivers and loved ones. A cancer survivor is anyone who has heard the words, “You have cancer.”

Elysia and her team are preparing to submit and to obtain their 501c3 non profit status and in the meantime working diligently to meet and exceed the goals of their organization and finding amazing support along the way. 

BLT is very excited to work together with the Strength and Hope Foundation to spread the word and help families during their journey with Cancer and in many cases continue that bond afterward as well. 

BLT would like to invite you to share in this venture and pay it forward by first going to the Strength and Hope Foundations Facebook page and following them as they grow and watch in amazement how.... Together we can make a difference... Together we WILL make a difference.... We are "Battling Life Together" so you are Never Alone in this fight!

Thank you for your kindness, for your support, for your prayers. 

The BLT Ladies~

Partners in the world of Cancer

It is amazing where the bridges you cross will take you. Almost three years ago this journey began with a few friends. Now we have grown in many ways. So many lives that have touched ours. People we never met before become dear friends, old friends become new treasures.

Extended families and friends become new supporters and advocates of the Battling Life Together mission.

The BLT Ladies attend many fund raising events and organize a few of our own to keep the Hope Alive.

Just recently a fabulous event at a local Ruby Tuesday restaurant brought us the realization of the number of people that can be touched by our growing organization.

Joining forces with other agencies gives power to the potential that Together we can and we will make the positive difference in the world that we intend.

Stay tuned for many updates to our friends, partners and advocates as we continue to grow, to strengthen and to reach out to more and more people that need a little reminder they are Never Alone.

The June/July 2013 edition of the Guilford County Womens Journal was a blessing to have our article published. Hope everyone picked up a copy... Page 27. 

We are honored to be part of such a prominent magazine in our area. Thank you to so many who helped us prepare and publish this article. 

Most especially but not limited to the following:

Andrea MacDiarmid 

Elizabeth Johnson ~ Elizabeth Ann Photography
http://www.elizabethaphoto.com/


Guilford County Womens Journal ~
http://www.gcwjournal.com/

 

Where We have Been.... Where We are Going...

What does all of this mean? Battling Life Together has started from a single package for a woman most of us had never met, to providing meals and gifts to a little girl and her family at Christmas. To deliver packages to a hospitals where instead of Santa Clause giving gifts requested a few ladies come together and strive to bring a smile to the face of someone facing the fight of their life.

So many sides of the world of Cancer. A young man diagnosed ready to fight and standing beside him his beautiful wife and family who are fighting for him and they are all fighting for the "normal" they had before the day the 'C' word changed everything.

A child that fought harder, longer and so many battles succumbs to the disease at the tender age of 9. His parents, his family who were making life happen in the life of cancer now begin again with learning the life without their baby. This can never be a new normal, life for them will carry on although it will never ever be the same. 

A teacher going to school everyday while fighting the fight and still making life seem normal to her students, even on the days when she is her sickest. Coming to school the first day when she has no hair and teaches like nothing changed.

A lady approached me recently and was touched by the mission of BLT and wanted to share her story. More than 10 years ago she went to the doctor for what to most people would have been a simple podiatry visit to end up being diagnosed with Leukemia and spending many weeks in the hospital. During her illness she collected more than 600 cards and the same day as we met she had sat down and looked through these cards and the emotion overwhelmed her at how each person had taken the time to think of her when she needed it most. 

These stories and so many more show the family and friends of Battling Life Together what it means to need someone to give them a lift, lend a hand or say a prayer at just the time that is right for them. Sometimes it is the cancer patient who teaches us how to be stronger how to fight harder and how to enjoy the days of what we would call normal.


Together we can do this... Together we will do this..... Always we will fight this....

Battling Life Together then and now and in the future we continue the mission we hope you will too.

When we join hands and hearts we can move mountains. Three ladies face the challenges of daily life, just a small undertaking considering the number of people fighting the daily battles for their life.

We are on a mission, a journey to make positive changes in the lives of others and in our own lives along the way. Reaching out our hands and our hearts to touch the lives of those in need. Maybe in need of a friend, in need of someone who will comfort them with a token of kindness. Over the last three years we have crossed the paths of wonderful caring people; some patients, some caregivers, some just like us on the path to share the love and commitment to help someone else and pay it forward.

We have found in this journey we are each being touched, healed in many ways ourselves. We have found the positive impact we are capable of in the world and how it is so contagious. Share your faith, share your kindness and it spreads like wildfire. So many people have given to Battling Life Together, not just monetarily or in donating supplies, in the kind words they share with others, in the way they feel the desire in their hearts to help others. We are so fortunate to have come together again, rekindled old friendships, created new ones and so blessed to share our experiences with others.

In a world so filled with sadness, poverty, suffering and pain we are Battling Life Together to provide Comfort, Support and Hope to others. We hope you will join us in this Battle and Together we will win the War!


Sincerely - The BLT Ladies

Thanks for the group photo:

Elizabeth Ann Photography
Www.elizabethaphoto.com

How do you measure....

A Year in the Life.... So many people have crossed our path, so many lives we have been honored to touch with the comfort of a small basket, a get well card, a telephone call. How do you measure your life? Do you have a day to day routine,a regular job, wonderful family and friends even a few activities during the week or weekend. Each and every person measures their life differently. 

Once you have a cancer diagnosis this routine changes, your days are different, your nights consist of new routines, new 'to do lists', your family takes on a new role of care giver, nurse, and google expert. (each of you who have ever supported someone battling cancer knows what this means)

We all have a place in this world, Our stay here might not be long for everyone we do choose the writing on our headstone. 

We are blessed to have our place in this world, a world so full of uncertainty, violence, tragedy... and of course a place in this world still so full of Love, Compassion, Commitment, Loyalty... yes it still exists. 

With each step we take we can decide to walk on someone, walk around them or walk beside them. You choose. We did. 

Battling Life Together has been a journey for each of the BLT Ladies as well, we have met new and wonderful people. Found so much love surrounding this journey and compassion for each other. We are paying it forward everyday. We have each experienced this disease from different perspectives, not physically diagnosed with the disease we carry it in our hearts, on our minds and have clear memories of each person we have walked this journey with. 

With the right steps every minute can be useful, helpful, healing and memorable. 529.600 minutes... how will you spend yours? 

Believe

Time ..... believe every minute will take you to the next hour, the next day, week or month. 

Hope....believe you have a chance to redeem yourself, ask for forgiveness, fulfill a mission.

Compassion... believe others show compassion in different ways, to different people, for different reasons. There are still good compassionate people in the world. 

Battling Life Together takes all of these things seriously because we Believe. We believe in each other, we believe in you. We believe in our God, we believe in our Soldiers and their supporters. What do you believe in? Do you believe you can make a change that you can show compassion to others, to yourself.

We all have a struggle, a complaint now and again. No matter how big or small it can be hurtful to deal with if you feel you are "alone". Believe that you have someone who will understand, someone who will listen, someone who wants you to share your heartache with them. Battling Life Together is here, so you are not alone and others are here for you too. 
Be strong, be confident, be yourself and most importantly Believe.....

Love and Comfort from your Faithful Founding Members of Battling Life Together. Where you are never alone in the journey you are on.

Life is Change

“Man can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air...but only for one second without hope.”

― Hal Lindsey

 

It is Hope that makes change possible, without Hope we have nothing. With every sunrise brings change, with every sunset more change. BLT has experienced many changes as we have grown and we will continue to grow and change and our journey, our mission remains the same. To our Soldiers we Battle On for you, because of you. 

 

We are set out to sail the seas of change, to change the lives of those we touch, to comfort the individuals and families touched by Cancer. 

 

Sweet change, we breathe in the Hope that surrounds us all. 

 

Much Love,

Battling Life Together

 

Together we are Never Alone