Coins For The Cure

To the Editor:

Once again Newtowners will be seeing blue covered cans around town, in the schools and stores. There will be a townwide campaign during the month of April called Coins For The Cure — Wipe Out Leukemia. This will be the third time for this fundraiser. It began this year with an after school club from Hawley School called Kids Care. It is a group of third and fourth graders that meet to develop the spirit of compassion and volunteerism in our community.

Coins For The Cure was begun in 2001 in memory of our 17-year-old son, Gregory Chion, who was diagnosed with AML Leukemia in the winter of his junior year at Newtown High School. Greg had many chemo treatments and a stem cell transplant. Our daughter, Jen, was a perfect match. Although we hoped for a complete recovery, he died in October 2000.

The honored patient for this campaign is Emily Montoya, a kindergarten student at Hawley School. She has had treatment for leukemia and is in remission.

Please help with a coin or two. Here are some unfortunate facts. Leukemia strikes ten percent more adults than children. Leukemia is the number one disease causing death of our children under the age of 15. Someone is diagnosed with leukemia every five minutes in the United States. And, every mine minutes someone dies from leukemia, lymphoma, or myeloma. Do you know someone who is included in these numbers?

It is through campaigns such as Coins For The Cure that someone might be diagnosed early and survive and that a cure will someday be found. We lost our son to this disease, let us hope and pray that another child will be spared.

I know I have said it before, but once again, people have proven that it is Nicer in Newtown.

Sincerely,

Ginny Chion

10 Cobblers Mill Road, Sandy Hook                          March 14, 2004