Dear Fellow Wrestling Parents:
First allow me to introduce myself. My name is Steve Martin and I own a small local business. I am not a coach, teacher or a staff member of Hononegah. I have been donating my time to the Hononegah Wrestling Department for the last 3 years.
I recreated and now maintain www.hononegahwrestling.com website. I started the e-mail list for the High School, Kids Club and Fan Club. I send out every e-mail for the Kids Club and Fan Club. My wife and I have been at every Wrestling Fan Club Meeting, as well as the last 3 years handled the collection and organizing of the payments at the Annual Wrestling Auction. Our oldest son is a wrestler, and our youngest will start this November at the age of 5. We both plan on being a part of Hononegah Wrestling for many years to come.
Now you may be asking why I am explaining all of this. I am sending this email out asking for your help, as well as the help from anyone else that you may decide to forward this to.
I am pretty sure that by now most, if not all of you know the name Matt Rader. Just in case you do not know who he is or simply are not sure please read the email below explaining:
Matthew Rader is the middle child of three. He is 17 years old and has an older sister, Brittany who is 20 and a younger brother Alex who is 13. Matt was at one time like every other child, always on the run, never taking the time to slow down.
 He is very athletic. Even as small as he's always been he loves any kind of competition. Matt participated in soccer, baseball, football and wrestling from the age of six years old to present time. Of all the sports, Matt loved and excelled in wrestling, with placing 7th in State at 13 years old as being one of his proudest moments.
It was in the Hononegah High School Wrestling room on November 13, 2009 that I (his dad) knew something was very wrong! Matthew was as white as the paper we write on, very fatigued and could not run, although he thought he was running. His response was "Dad I'm just out of shape”. No way, Matt’s never been out of shape were my thoughts and I started praying immediately. After wrestling practice his Mom and I got him to his Doctor immediately.
At 4:00pm that day Matt's pediatrician diagnosed Matt with Leukemia and made phone calls to get Matt admitted to UW Children’s Hospital in Madison. With only enough time to pack up a few things we headed up there and by 6:00pm that evening the Doctors confirmed our worst fears that yes Matt has Cancer. Our whole lives changed in a matter of hours. Matthew had a Bone Marrow Aspirate the very next morning to verify what kind of Leukemia Matt has. The results came back that Matt has Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (better known as “ALL”). After a long period of questions from friends and family, including Matt, the Doctors patiently answered them and began to work, not a second wasted. Matthew's response to everyone in that room was "I don't care; I'm going to fight this, beat it and walk out of here." To this day he has done just that.
Matthew reached remission within 20 days, which was very critical to do. Don't be fooled, remission means that Matt is 99.5% free of cancer What this means is instead of trillions of cancer cells in Matt's blood he is now down to billions and the cancer cells have a tendency to want to come back.
The protocol for “ALL” is 3 1/2 to 4 years of aggressive treatment which includes chemotherapy and radiation. Along with the chemotherapy Matthew has countless transfusions of blood, platelets and plasma. “ALL” is a very active cancer which is good, so the chemo can reach the cancer cells and kill them. Remember you can't kill what you can't see.
UW Madison is 60 miles one way from our home. Since November 13th thousands of miles have been driven and will continue to be driven to save Matt's life.
Today Matt is a very normal yet very sick young man. Although not feeling well allot of the time, Matt chose to get a job. He loves it. He's gotten caught up in “ALL” his high school classes thanks to Hononegah HS tutors and his Wrestling coaches.
Watching Matthew swim, play basketball, baseball in the backyard and wrestling with his brother has never meant more.
He has a long journey ahead of him, but not alone. Not until the age of 24 will Matt be considered cancer free. With the continued love and support from friends, family and community and a very strong faith in God, we will get through this.
"TOGETHER WE FIGHT, TOGETHER WE WIN"
The above letter was sent to me from Matt’s father. I know times are tough right now. I know the economy is not the greatest. Matt’s dad is proof of that. Tom works in construction and as you can see not too many houses are being built and many houses are sitting not finished. So it is safe to say Tom has not had real steady work.
Tom and Sherri Rader are like many of us. We work our entire life so we can someday save up, retire and enjoy the future. Many of us can not even imagine what happens to a family when one of our children has been diagnosed with Cancer. However if you know Tom and Sherri, they are always upbeat and happy. Even Matt always has a smile on his face.
I would like to request, ask, beg, plead or however you would like me to ask. I would like everyone who is reading this email, no matter if you are on the original email list, if it has been forwarded to you by someone who has a child at Hononegah or if you are the 26th person to get this forward.
My request is you give up 1 thing you would do a week for yourself. Instead of doing that 1 thing, donate that money. No matter how small of a thing it is. Even if you get a cup of Starbucks coffee once a week, eat a value meal at McDonald, go out to dinner, rent a movie. No matter how small it may seem to you, when it is all added up, it WILL make a difference in this family.
I have set up a link at www.hononegahwrestling.com so you can donate via PayPal. You can send whatever amount you would normally spend. There is no minimum amount you can send. Every donation the Radar family receives will go directly to pay for treatment for their child.
For the closing of this email, I would like to Thank You for reading “ALL” of this and not just deleting it. I would like to thank you in advanced if you are able to donate. You can donate just once, or you can donate as often as you would like.
Thank You,
Steve Martin
steve@seekyourgeek.com
|
|
|
Connecting to Facebook
