50 for 50 Day Four: Accelerated Cure for MS

Thanks for stopping by my 50th Birthday Celebration, Day Four. (There’s real post-y stuff at the bottom for those of you who are sick of my 50 for 50 project already.)

Once again, here’s what is going on: because I have everything I need, I am asking people to get involved with charities, if they are so inspired, in honor of my birthday. And in honor of caring humanity and all that good stuff.

I will feature a different charity each day for 50 days to give you plenty of chances to get involved. You don’t have to donate or act every day, of course, or at all. But I wanted to give a voice to different good works around the globe. If you ARE inspired to take action, please leave me a comment and let me know that you did. This is all I want for my birthday – to spread some love and kindness. Thank you, my dear friends.

Today’s organization is small but scrappy: Accelerated Cure for Multiple Sclerosis

My sister Laura died of complications of MS on May 13, 2007. Man, I can’t even type that sentence without getting tears in my eyes. MS sucks in a horrible bad sucky way, and no one should ever have to suffer through it.

A lot of people donate to the MS Society, but Laura was not a fan. That’s an understatement and I’m not going any further except to say I needed to find another MS-related charity to donate to, and Accelerated Cure is something I’m sure Laura would have approved of. They are compiling all the known information and research on MS so it can be coordinated and referenced.

I asked them for a comment and they sent me a lovely email:
Happy Birthday Suebob! We are honored to be included in your 50th birthday celebration. Accelerated Cure Project (ACP) is a national nonprofit focused on curing multiple sclerosis (MS), the most common condition causing neurological disability in young adults. We believe that our unique approach of building a biorepository of samples from people with not only MS but other similar neurological diseases and control samples will help to accelerate the cure of MS. The purpose of our biorepository is to facilitate research that will aid in determining the causes and mechanisms of MS. Any researcher is able access this valuable resource as long as they agree to return the their findings for to share with other scientists. In this way, ACP encourages collaboration that will lead to a more holistic view of the causes and mechanisms of MS. We believe this collaboration, along with the enormous amount of data generated, will lead to finding the cure for MS. Multiple sclerosis affects over 400,000 people in the US and 2 million individuals worldwide. As you help Suebob celebrate her 50th birthday we encourage you to find out more about our organization and help us (and the millions of people with MS) in any way you are able. To learn more, please visit http://www.acceleratedcure.org, email info@acceleratedcure.org or call 781/487-0008.

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Thanks for any and all help for this great cause. Donate here. And other volunteer opportunities are listed here.

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Well, no rapture. That makes me happy for several reasons 1) I would have gotten left behind and had to live through the tribulations, and there is really nothing I hate more than rains of hail, fire and blood. Especially blood. So hard to get out of cottons. 2) I have season tickets to the local pro futbol club and they are #1 in their division.

I will be sad, however, to see the end of the Rapture jokes. They are the kind of thing Twitter is made for.

Issa did true confessions in honor of the Rapture. Here’s one of mine: I nap in my car. Even when I am at home. I will walk out of my house, get in my car in the driveway, and nap for 10 minutes. I sleep better in my car than anywhere else. I don’t know if it is the warmth or the comfy seats or what, but if you come to my house and can’t find me, look out in the car.