So, here's the deal: 

Eric and I started a new campaign to help the Matt Cwiertny Memorial Foundation raise at least $50K for a research grant. This campaign runs from May 15th - July 15th and the goal is $20,000.

For every $1,000 raised for the MCMF Challenge 2012: May-July, Eric and I will donate $200 to the Be the Match Foundation through our "Give the Gift of Life" project page. Be the Match is an AMAZING charity that helps saves lives by adding donors to the marrow registry, by offering relief to patients who are struggling with thousands in uninsured costs, and by investing in "research discoveries".

(click the "Give the Gift of Life" project link to read more about this important cause)

$1,000 raised for MCMF = $200 donated to Be the Match Foundation
$5,000 raised for MCMF = $1,000 donated to Be the Match Foundation
$10,000 raised for MCMF = $2,000 donated to Be the Match Foundation
$15,000 raised for MCMF = $3,000 donated to Be the Match Foundation
$20,000 raised for MCMF = $4,000 donated to Be the Match Foundation

Sound good? Then let's raise some funds and help save lives!

Who is Matt and why this matters:

Matt was a 22-year-old junior art director for Marshall Advertising, who loved the L.A. Galaxy soccer, A.S. Roma, the Flight of the Conchords, The Dandy Warhols, Jack’s Mannequin, The 88, and Will Ferrell movies, when he got a really bad case of mono. We thought he'd recovered until six months later when Matt started getting extraordinarily high fevers, his blood pressure dropped, and his blood counts cratered. His doctors were confounded, especially when they concluded it was not mono. It was only after he went into respiratory failure that his doctors at USC learned he suffered from EBV-induced Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis (EBV-HLH), a blood disorder affecting only 1 of every 1,000,000 persons (after a bone marrow biopsy, the doctors decided he'd had mono earlier). While EBV-HLH is not cancer, it acts and is treated like a cancer. The disorder destroys healthy blood cells, and is treated with chemotherapy, and a bone marrow transplant, if necessary. EBV-HLH often induces lymphoma, which it did in Matt. One month after his EBV-HLH diagnosis, Matt learned he was also battling NK T-Cell lymphoma, one of the most aggressive and least researched blood cancers there is.

In December 2008, Matt received his bone marrow transplant. While it temporarily put him in remission, his lymphoma returned in February 2009, and in June 2009, Matt learned it had returned in the form of an inoperable brain tumor. After chemo failed to put him in remission, Matt began radiation treatment. Before finishing it, he was readmitted to the City of Hope in late September 2009. At that time, Matt was in a weakened state, with his EBV levels extraordinarily high that it was debilitating to his liver and kidneys. Unfortunately, the doctors were unable to administer any treatment that could reverse the affects of the EBV and its impact on Matt’s vital organs… And at midnight on October 3, 2009, he passed away with his family surrounding him.

Please help us fund medical research for EBV and EBV-associated diseases, which include blood cancers. We need to raise at least $50,000 for a research grant and we're not quite there yet. We definitely can't reach this goal without everyone's help, so let's do this... for Matt and for other families. Thank you so much!

To learn more about the Matt Cwiertny Memorial Foundation and what we want to accomplish, please visit: http://www.mattcwiertnymemorialfoundation.com

Follow the Matt Cwiertny Memorial Foundation on Twitter at @MattCwiertnyMF

Or on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/mattcwiertnymemorialfoundation

Thank you.

Michele