The good guys thread

[kuhio98]

Veteran asks for kidney, country answers call
Hundreds pledge to donate to Arcadia man


EDMOND, Okla. —A local veteran took to a street corner to ask for life-saving help and people across the country have answered his call.

Robert Dean, 84, of Arcadia held a sign asking for a kidney donation at the corner of Memorial and Penn on Sunday. He says since then 200 people have pledged to help him.

After the story aired on KOCO 5, it was picked up by stations across the country. Dean says he's gotten call after call. He said, “I had hoped to get one... I love these people.”

People from Florida to Alaska are literally offering a piece of themselves to save his life.

The veteran turned sculptor is narrowing down the list but says he is grateful to everyone.

Dean said, “This is the greatest gift that anyone could give and the greatest gift that anyone could receive… I wish that I could say more than thank you but it's all you could say, thank you.”

Dean says when he recovers from the surgery he plans to throw a party and invite everyone who offered to donate.

[Karen]

Dean says when he recovers from the surgery he plans to throw a party and invite everyone who offered to donate.

What the story doesn't mention is that his act could save more lives than his own. Anyone who gets tested then becomes part of the national database, and if they do not match him, may match some future person in need!

I signed up to be an organ donor when I first got my driver's license - when I'm done with these parts, I hope they can go to good use!

[kuhio98]

What the story doesn't mention is that his act could save more lives than his own. Anyone who gets tested then becomes part of the national database, and if they do not match him, may match some future person in need!

I signed up to be an organ donor when I first got my driver's license - when I'm done with these parts, I hope they can go to good use!

I signed my donor card too. And testing revealed that I'm a match for my mother who will need a kidney transplant in the near future.

[kuhio98]

92-Year-Old Hero Meets 8-Year-Old Girl Whose Life He Saved



John Shear is 92. He's about 5-feet-tall, he's worked as a guard at the Santa Anita racetrack in California for 51 years, and he can still do 30 pushups at the gym every day – which is 30 more than we've ever done.

One day two years ago, Shear heard someone shout out that there was a loose horse in the paddock. "I went to one side and when I looked down, there was a little girl standing there," he told ABC News. The little girl was Michael Key's five-year-old daughter Roxy. Shear didn't even take a beat before deciding to jump in front of Roxy.

"I knew I was going to get hit," he said. "I thought there was a possibility I was going to die but you cannot stop and think, 'Should I or shouldn't I?' There is a five-year-old girl. I'm 90 years old. I have had a life. She hasn't had a life. You got to save that life."

And that's what he did. Shear was critically injured when the horse trampled both of them, and while Roxy was fine, the elderly man spent seven weeks in the hospital. When he got out, there was just one thing he wanted to do.

"I have always wanted to meet [Roxy] and I was so sad that I never got the chance to meet her when I got better," he said. So two years later, Shear went to one of Roxy's dance recitals, and was finally introduced to the little girl, now 8, whose life he saved.

"When her mother came over and hugged me and said, 'You're my daughter's guardian angel,' I felt wonderful," Shear said.

Roxy's father Michael sums up Shear's actions best: "He didn't save a daughter, he saved a family."

Watch their heartfelt reunion below.

[kuhio98]

Hero dog discovers, saves abandoned baby

BIRMINGHAM, England -- A stroll in an English park has a dog hailed a hero, and quite possibly saved the life of a baby.

According to the Birmingham Mail newspaper, a German shepherd named Jade was walking with its owner when the dog ran and laid down next to a bag discarded in shrubs.

When the owner inspected what his pet had found, he discovered a newborn baby girl. He ran to a friend's home to call the authorities, saying he didn't touch the bag so he wouldn't contaminate any evidence.

According to reports, the hospital where the baby was taken has nicknamed her Jade after the hero dog.

Police have not found the mother.

Short video here:

http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/weird-...ed-baby/nbhDt/

[kuhio98]

Woman Preps for Double Mastectomy with Beyoncé Dance Party



When preparing to undergo a double mastectomy, most women wouldn't immediately think to initiate a full-on dance party in the operating room. But Deborah Cohan enlisted her surgical and anesthesia teams to join her in making a viral video to inspire others to show courage in the face of cancer.

The mom of two, clad in a hospital gown, boogies down to Beyonce's "Get Bodied" for about six minutes before her surgery at Mt. Zion hospital in San Francisco, as captured in the YouTube clip.

On her CaringBridge page, Cohan invited others to participate in a virtual flash mob by sending footage of themselves dancing to the track, from Beyonce's 2006 album B'Day.

"I have visions of a healing video montage," Cohan wrote on Nov. 1. "Nothing brings me greater joy than catalyzing others to dance, move, be in their bodies. Are you with me people?"

Don't just watch – get up and dance – along to the uplifting video below.

[kuhio98]

Gretchen Holt-Witt Baked 96,000 Cookies to Raise Millions for Cancer Research After Losing Son



In the fall of 2007, doting mother Gretchen Holt-Witt of Califon, N.J., was in good spirits. Her 2-year-old son Liam, who had spent months in and out of the hospital battling neuroblastoma, a form of nerve cancer, was in remission and appeared healthy once again.

"We were so grateful his cancer was gone, we felt it was important to give back," says Holt-Witt.

So Gretchen and Liam, a joyful risk-taker of a kid who loved to cook – "he'd download tons of cooking apps," Holt-Witt says – decided to pay it forward. They came up with the idea to bake cookies to raise money for pediatric cancer research. But a few dozen wouldn't do. They opted for 8,000 dozen.

"We wanted to push our boundaries the way Liam's had been pushed," says Holt-Witt, who along with her husband Larry, daughter Ella, and 250 friends and volunteers churned out 96,000 cookies, raising more than $400,000.

Holt-Witt founded the non-profit organization Cookies For Kids' Cancer. People all around the country hold bake sales in the name of the organization to take up donations for pediatric cancer research.



Now celebrating its fifth year, CFKC has raised more than $5 million for research and development of new cancer treatments for kids and this year published a new cookies cookbook, with proceeds going back to the charity.


"There aren't that many treatment options for kids because pediatric cancers get the short end of the funding stick," says Holt-Witt. "Helping others is what allows me to cope."

Shortly after their bake sale, Liam's cancer returned.

"He went through tons of relapses," says Holt-Witt, "It was kind of like building a house in the sand, the foundation could give away any second."

But despite constant trips to the doctors office, and countless rounds of chemo and radiation, Holt-Witt says "Liam didn't know he was sick. I'd say, 'Oh we're just going to spend a few more days at the hospital, no problem.' Seeing me worry was not going to make life easier for him."

First diagnosed as a toddler, Liam never showed any telltale signs of the illness. For four years Liam underwent countless clinical trials. Despite the treatment and doctors' best efforts, he never reached his seventh birthday.

"Missing her brother and losing her only sibling will never go away," says Holt-Witt of her daughter Ella, 7, who often comments on things Liam would have liked to do and see. "But Cookies is an outlet for her, because she feels like her bothers life had meaning and wasn't in vain."

The organization has now helped fund their seventh clinical trial project, meaning new hope for young cancer patients around the world.

"Cookies gives anybody, anywhere something tangible to do to help with such a daunting issue. It makes you feel like a hero," says Holt-Witt. "I know this sounds strange, but I feel like one of the luckiest people out there because I get to see the good in people. To have the opportunity to receive access to a new treatment is the equivalent of having a chance at bat."

That's a chance Morgan Pierce has now. The 10-year-old from Plant City, Fla. is currently receiving lifesaving cancer treatment through a new clinical trial that Cookies help fund.

"That's what keeps you going," says Holt-Witt. "I don't have my son here to hug and hold and love, but I'd still do anything for him. I know the first thing he'll say when I see him in heaven is, 'Mommy, did you make it better for others?' And my husband and I will have to look at him and say 'We did everything we could.' "