Help Me Change Cancer This Month

Today is August 1. By the end of this month, you can help me change the future of blood cancer. I’m kicking off my 2016 Light The Night fundraising with a simple idea: Put aside your spare change for a month, count it up, and donate the amount you saved. (Click the image above to watch the video I made and learn more.)

Light The Night Team 2015

Rain didn’t keep Joe’s Adventurers away from Light The Night 2015.

Last year, thanks to the generosity of friends and family like you, my Light The Night team raised $4,185 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to help fight blood cancer. This year, with your help, we can beat that goal. Your spare pocket change can get us further toward the ultimate win: a world without blood cancer.

Five Rounds of Chemo. What’s It Like?

To Chemo and Back

Click or tap the arrow to play a short video of a day of my last treatment cycle.

I finished my fifth of six rounds of chemo last week, and my streak continues. I’ve done great throughout my treatment, and it’s a little hard to believe that I’ll be done in two weeks, when I complete my sixth and final cycle.

Like anything in life, unless you go through chemotherapy, you form your opinion of it based on what others share about their own experiences. Those tales can often be negative or exaggerated, especially when posted online, where people seem quick to post about the time their sister’s best friend’s mother, lived next door to a woman, whose cousin’s arm turned green and started dripping, after getting that same exact drug!

In fact, for me, it hasn’t been that bad at all, and to share that, I made a short video of my experience getting to and from my treatment on the first day of my last cycle. A shout-out goes to my cousin, Tom Polizzi, for the musical score, an original composition, Beta, performed by his band, Tom Polizzi Trio, live at the Falcon, in my hometown of Marlborough, NY. And, thanks, too, to his dad, my uncle, Charlie, for recording and sharing the audio.

Look for a wrap-up update in a few weeks, and meanwhile, enjoy the video!