SHADE Foundation

July 2010

I hope every­one is enjoy­ing a safe and happy sum­mer.  This sum­mer take advan­tage of your local muse­ums and libraries to per­haps learn some­thing new and to avoid those peak UV hours between 10am and 2pm.  If you are in the Boston area join in some bowl­ing fun at King’s in Back Bay and Dedham.  Get you coupon for some free bowl­ing here.  We can’t spend our entire sum­mer indoors though, so make sure you fol­low the SunWise sun safety guidlines:

• Cover up
• Use sun­screen appropriately
• Seek shade
• Limit your time in the sun
• Don’t for­get those hats and sun­glasses too!

Have a great summer!

May 2010

As May is Melanoma Awareness Month, I have asked one of my friends to share her story on this blog.  My wish would be that not one more per­son ever has to be told they have Melanoma.  Remember as you are read­ing this, that skin can­cer is almost always pre­ventable and treat­able if diag­nosed early.  Please get your skin checked and pro­tect your chil­dren from harm­ful UV rays between the hours of 10 am and 4 pm.  Here is my fel­low baseball-wife friend, Alison Mahay’s  story.…

My cousin Landa was 35 years old when she lost her  bat­tle with Melanoma.
Landa was petite, beau­ti­ful and very much into fash­ion. She was mar­ried to Chris for eleven years and together were rais­ing three won­der­ful chil­dren – Isabella 11, Sofia 7 and Christopher 2. Landa had it all. Chris was an incred­i­ble lov­ing hus­band. They both loved to cook and enter­tain fam­ily and friends and enjoyed trav­el­ing as well. Their chil­dren were their great­est accom­plish­ment. Landa always had a mole above her lip since I can remem­ber. After Isabella was born her mom told her she didn’t like the way it looked so she went to her der­ma­tol­o­gist and sure enough it turned out to be Melanoma. She imme­di­ately had the mole removed and some cos­metic surgery fol­lowed. She had follow-up vis­its and the doc­tor seemed to think he had got­ten all the can­cer. Little did we all know that this insid­i­ous dis­ease stayed and was lurk­ing in her body.
Eight years later in August 2008, Landa was not feel­ing well so a visit to her doc­tor was truly a shock when he told her she must see a sur­geon. Her Melanoma had spread to her liver, her kidney’s and her brain.  From that day on she lived in pain each and every day. Her par­ents moved into her home to help and so she began her jour­ney. She encoun­tered end­less treat­ments. She went back and forth to New York City. And she was in con­stant pain while never once say­ing “God, why me?”
Her con­cern was for her chil­dren. She was a fighter all the way. Her belief in God got her through each and every day. Physically, our Landa changed. Unrecognizable in her last months of life, her heart and soul remained as beau­ti­ful and pas­sion­ate as she always was. She lived her last year, like she lived the rest of her life for her chil­dren.  As an  early ele­men­tary edu­ca­tion teacher, Landa loved chil­dren, and put her heart and soul into Isabella, Sophia and Christopher.  She would go to every birth­day party, and soc­cer game in her wheel chair with a smile on her face and cheer them on until her final moments.  She wanted to be there for every­thing she could and never sec­ond guessed doing it!
She was also sur­rounded by the most remark­able fam­ily in the entire world!  My Aunt Kathy, her mother moved in with her and took con­stant care of her, as her hus­band Chris never missed a doc­tors appoint­ment and fought just as hard as Landa did to the bit­ter end.  Landa did really have us all find bless­ings in each other.
I am not sure what les­son we are to be taught by Landa’s pass­ing. Why a beau­ti­ful, intel­li­gent 35 year old mother of three, and lov­ing wife was taken in the prime of her life still shakes me to the core.
I always thought, in a strange way, skin can­cer was just an easy cure, a noth­ing dis­ease that was eas­ily cured.  The most igno­rant way a per­son could ever think!  This vicious dis­ease hit our fam­ily so hard; it is some­thing that we will never get over, but some­thing that has made us embrace one another even more than we already have!  We have always been close, but it’s beyond that now!  We are all ded­i­cated to find­ing a cure for this beastly dis­ease and pray­ing that another fam­ily won’t have to suf­fer the loss of a loved one like our Landa.

Melanoma is the beast that attacks with a vengeance. We need to stop it!

Feb 2010

Spring Training has always been my favorite time of year.
It meant in just a short time we would be pack­ing away
the hats, gloves and win­ter sweaters.  In no time our
shorts and flip flops would be replaced in our clos­ets.
If you live in a place like Boston or Maryland (where I grew up)
you were sick of win­ter after Christmas and ready to feel the warmth
of a sum­mer day.  When I was younger it meant visions of sum­mer vaca­tion
and as an adult it reminds me of the begin­ning of a new base­ball sea­son.
We can still have those feel­ings and be safe at the same time.
Lets start from the begin­ning by remem­ber­ing to apply sun­block
to our chil­dren and our­selves.  Remember our skin is our biggest
liv­ing organ on our body.  It pro­tects every­thing in our body.
Lets keep our skin safe and get a healthy jump on spring which
is right around the cor­ner.
Shonda

Jan 2010

I know it has been a long time since I have writ­ten on this blog.
I did some­thing I never thought I would do.  I wrote a book!
As of yes­ter­day it is com­plete and ready to go to print.
The book is called “The Best Kind of Different”  My family’s
jour­ney through Aspergers.  Like SHADE this was a very
heal­ing process for me.  My third child has Aspergers.
The release date is March 23^rd and you can pre-order it at Amazon.com .

I do hope that dur­ing these much colder months
that you take this oppur­tu­nity to really look at your
body for changes in your skin.  This is the best time
to do so.  Our bod­ies have not been exposed to the sun
too much when it is 20 degrees out­side like here in New England.

Wishing every­one a Healthy, Happy 2010.
Stay Shaded,
Shonda

Oct 2009

Hello Everyone,

I spoke at the Glenna Kohl Fund For Hope’s First Annual Angel’s Masquerade Ball on Saturday, October 17^th.  This is in mem­ory of my dear friend who recently lost her bat­tle with melanoma.

15 years ago I stood before the FDA wait­ing for my turn to give my
tes­ti­mony on a clin­i­cal drug trial for ALS.

One by one I heard fam­i­lies plead to have the drug.

They explained what could hap­pen in a human life over the course of
three months, because that was the aver­age increase in life expectancy
of a per­son tak­ing this clin­i­cal drug.

One per­son in par­tic­u­lar who was in her mid thir­ties explained what
three more months would have meant to her husband:

cel­e­brat­ing their 12^th wed­ding anniversary

watch­ing their son turn 9
see­ing their daughter’s first dance recital

and watch­ing their third child start kindergarten

This moment will be etched in my mem­ory for­ever. How much time three
months really means.

As I stood there shak­ing and cry­ing, I searched to find the words that
could even come close to the mes­sage that this per­son was giving.

As I walked to the podium car­ry­ing my one year old son, I shook and cried
so hard that my hus­band had to find the words to say to the four stone
faced adults, who sat on the board and with a yay or a nay, approved or
denied a request.

Many of you prob­a­bly don’t know how I came to know Glenna.  When Red Sox
nation was so excited about our com­ing to the Boston one per­son reached
out to me to say “Welcome, I love what you are doing, I too am a melanoma
survivor.”

The email friend­ship began.  Over the next three years we kept in touch
on our health, our fam­i­lies, and of course our Red Sox.

I remem­ber the first time I ever met Glenna. It was with her brother and
dur­ing a rain delay on what ended up being a very long game.

Glenna was always pos­i­tive, smil­ing and never seemed to complain.

She touched my heart for so many reasons.

She was grace­ful and con­fi­dent even though you knew her days and months
had to be filled with need­ing a break.

We would check in with each other time to time and once or twice a year
I would invite her to the game so we could catch up.

I was for­tu­nate to meet mom and dad also.

I intro­duced her to Kelli Pedroia at one of these games.

Just as I thought Glenna had a way of mak­ing you feel good being around
her.

Kelli would always check in to see how Glenna was doing.  Of course
Glenna’s ver­sion was always pos­i­tive and filled with humor.

As Glenna rooted for the Red Sox, the Red Sox rooted for Glenna.

Even though Glenna was sick she worked hard to spread the word about
melanoma and how it could be pre­vented.  She shared her story only to
make a difference.

She was a good per­son with a heart of gold.

When Glenna passed it broke all of our hearts.

She was too young and spent too long fighting.

I was shocked when I saw a pic­ture of Glenna with long beau­ti­ful blonde
hair.

She was a very beau­ti­ful girl.

You see, I had never seen Glenna not sick or with hair.

The con­fi­dence that she showed and love of life was all that I could
see.

I would be lying though, if I said I saw her with­out hair, because Glenna
always wore a Red Sox hat!

If you are won­der­ing why I started telling the story of stand­ing before
the FDA here it is:

I can not tell you any­thing that you don’t already know about Glenna.

What I can tell you is what I learned after the FDA hear­ing, that like
ALS or melanoma, not one voice will change the world.  It was the sto­ries
that were told that day; the sto­ries that will be told of Glenna for
years to come.

Glenna in her dark­est days still looked to help oth­ers.  That is what
she wanted.  Tonight is a per­fect exam­ple of car­ry­ing her legacy on.  Her
pass­ing will bring life to others.

I love the saying:

What we do for our­selves dies with us.  What we do for oth­ers lives on!

Glenna’s name will live on through each of us in the sto­ries that we
share about her courage and love of life.  Thank you to each and every one
of you out there tonight for being here.

Thank you to the Kohl fam­ily for shar­ing her with every­one.  We are all
bet­ter peo­ple for know­ing her.

Please let us all have a good time tonight and cel­e­brate Glenna’s life.

Shonda Schilling