A Single Mum needs your help!!

I had a lengthy conversation with a single mum, who asked to be called "Laura". She is desperate for help.

We offered her emotional support until we would have the funding to help her financially. But she gratefully declined at the time.

This was a BIG learning for us and Christoph made a key distinction. When we helped Kathleen, we addressed her financial worries FIRST, which put her mind at ease, enabled her to relax more and focus on her healing. This opened her to the emotional support, knowing she could continue to feed and shelter her kids.

So, what's Laura's story?

Imagine you are a healthy, happily married mother with three beautiful young children. You are proud of your personal accomplishments, including a Masters Degree. You live a modest and financially responsible life.

Suddenly, the rug is pulled from underneath your feet without warning!

In the span of 5 years, you've been diagnosed with breast cancer, had a double mastectomy, received a full round of chemotherapy, over 45 radiation treatments, a hysterectomy, and were continuously weak from all the post cancer medication.

And it doesn't stop here... During this time, you suffered two car accidents, a painful divorce, you were a Hurricane Catrina victim in Louisiana (you had to move away from your kids to another state for several months to continue medical treatment), you lost your job (including medical benefits) as a result of these circumstances and accrued nearly US$50,000 of debt.

However, the bright side is that you were one of the lucky ones who found a job again after it was safe to move back into Louisiana. And being lucky means you are earning almost US$20,000 a year (despite the masters degree).

The most painful result is that your kids can only live with you 40% of the time because you now live in a bedsit (studio apartment) and work full time. Including your daily commute to work you are away from home over 60 hours per week. This means you're rarely home and when you are, you need to sleep and continue to heal. You couldn't even afford a babysitter for your kids if they lived with you.

You don't have enough money to cover basic household and food expenses - let alone to begin paying back the financial obligations you've accrued in recent years. And when you have your kids to stay, they all sleep in the bed and you sleep on the floor.

As much as you try to be positive, the prevailing worry is "Am I going to live long enough to see my kids turn 18?" and "Will my breast cancer come back even though I've taken all measures to prevent that?"

All you want to do is to be the loving, healthy and happy mother you were before - who nurtures and protects her children as moms instinctively do.

What meaning would you give this? How would you feel if your life, happiness, identity, children and well being were taken away from you and you were living on the edge physically, emotionally and financially? How could you see the positive in any of this?

Bouncing for Breast Cancer helps experience the positive in a seemingly impossible situation. Our mission grows out of a genuine love and caring for single mums whose diseases place their lives and their kids' lives precariously on the edge. Meeting them at that edge and gradually escorting them back to life and to their future, is the challenge and our call to action.

This single mom - OUR SISTER - is in need of YOUR HELP. Help us, help them and together we will sleep better tonight, knowing these moms and their kids are, too.

TO HELP LAURA, visit our website http://www.bouncingforbreastcancer.org/ and click on the donate button.

Thanks and God Bless