Support Dennis!

{.broken_link}For the past few years around this time I make a post requesting that people help sponsor my friend Dennis as he does his yearly San Francisco AIDS Walk. I don’t know whether he gets any extra donations from these posts but I like to do what I can to help.

Last September Dennis was told he has metastatic neuroendocrine cancer. When they found it it had already reached stage four. To call the prognosis “grim” would not start to describe it.

Since that time we’ve watched him go through chemo and radiation and suffer through the side-effects of both. Though he would have some down days overall he was inspiringly positive about it. His life was now short but it would be sweeter than ever. He quit his job, threw himself into his art and his friends, especially Della, and didn’t let his mortality get the best of him. I don’t know of anyone else who could have turned a situation like this to their advantage.

This seems to have worked for him. This week he’s discovered he’s in remission. This should not have happened. The odds were so remarkably thin that it wasn’t an option most of us even seriously entertained. Yet it happened. The thrill that goes through a person when they learn that the impossible has happened and their friend is going to live is better than any high or adrenaline buzz anyone has ever chased.

True to form, Dennis is using his new lease on life to continue helping others. Though he’s still somewhat weak from radiation he’s once again participating in AIDS Walk San Francisco{.broken_link}, raising money to help find a cure for others in different but equally dire situations. This is the twenty first year that he has participated. In those years he’s raised over $30,000 (and counting).

He may not make it the entire 10K but, really, does it matter? He’s doing it, despite everything he’s been through. The least we can do is reward and support someone with the strength, willpower and caring to make the effort. It doesn’t have to be much, just a few bucks or so, but please donate{.broken_link} to support Dennis and help fund research to find a cure for AIDS.