Just Cause Challenge Time

Did you pick up the Friday Freebie that Jodie from Bugaboo stamps gave away yesterday? You're going to need it today. The challenge this week at Catch the Bug is to make a card that represents a cause that you believe in or that has affected your life in some way. I used the bear again and this time I colored the ribbon gold to represent Childhood Cancer awareness.

In the summer of 1977, my then nine year old sister fell off the monkey bars on our backyard swingset. My mom called the doctor because she was having some pain in her back but it wasn't that serious of a fall so the doctor thought there was no need to come in. After several more days of the pain not subsiding, my mom brought her back to the doctor and this time insisted they take x-rays. The doctors and my parents were shocked to find out that the pain she was having was not from the fall, but from the cancer that had invaded her kidneys. What followed was a series of operations, chemo therapy and radiation. I don't remember a lot of details, but I do remember her losing her hair, being very sick from the chemo and crying out in the night that she just wanted to die. She did die, on January 5, 1978 at the age of ten. I can't think of anything worse than watching your child die, and I honestly do not know how my parents survived that. My heart goes out to any family with a child with cancer. Hopefully, with awareness and funding, we can make childhood cancer a thing of the past.
If you are interested in reading more about the Childhood Cancer Advocacy Group, you can find them HERE. Another great organization is the St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. You can check them out HERE.
I hope you'll join in the challenge at Catch the Bug. You can win your choice of seven, four or two images of your choice. We'd love to see what you make and hear about the causes that are close to your heart so please join in.
To make this card, I used the Sketch from Papertake Weekly.