Leisure Time? There's No Rest for the Weary

I have been working hard lately. Last night I was in the office until 9 PM....and tonight I was there until 8PM. It is almost 11 PM and I am still sitting in front of the computer at home trying to get things done. I read the LCA website every day http://www.inspire.com/groups/lung-cancer-alliance-survivors/ and half the time I leave the site in tears. (Tonight I found the shocking story of a 15 year old girl who was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer. You can learn more about her story at http://www.haleydyal.com/. )

The more I read about lung cancer, the more angry I become and the more determined I become to do something while I am healthy.

I am going to organize the Florida Chapter of Lung Cancer Alliance. I have a number of friends in mind to help me, including Dr. Matt DeFilipis, whose father is fighting lung cancer, Mary Grace Lorah, whose sister died this year from lung cancer, Walter (who I played golf with this weekend), who also had a sister that died of lung cancer a few months ago, Jen Wadsworth, my editor at the Sun, whose mother died from lung cancer, John Rioux, who is the Chief of Surgery at Fawcett and the hospital cancer spokesman, Dr. Cary Huber, who is a thorasic surgeon at Charlotte Regional and is very much on board with helping, and (I hope) Scott Lunin and Dave Rice . This would be a good "core team" but we will need to recruit a lot of volunteers to help.

My thoughts are that we would create the outline of an organization and a strategic plan regarding what we want to accomplish. We are going to need funding, political advocacy, public relations, platform development, etc.

I have the opportunity to speak in front of a number of groups next month with 30 or 40 people. These include Charlotte County Young Professionals, OCEAN (a caregiver organization), and Charlotte Harbor Rotary. Its a good opportunity to begin finding funding and volunteers.

Aside from the newspaper column, I have Project Graduation, St Vincent de Paul, our Rotary Club golf tournment, and lung cancer advocacy. There is so much I want to do (books I want to read, getting into an exercise routine, etc.) The problem is finding the time.