The good guys thread

[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.' "

[kuhio98]

USS Harry S. Truman sailors free trapped sea turtle



Sailors assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman rescued a sea turtle that was tangled in a makeshift fishing net on Nov. 7.

“They called away, ‘man the port davit,’ because a lookout saw some containers attached to a net in the water, and there was a sea turtle trapped in it,” said Lt. j.g. Lillian Bean, who served as the boat officer for the rigid-hull inflatable boat (RHIB) used in the rescue.

In addition to Bean, the RHIB crew included Chief Damage Controlman Mark Rayner, search and rescue swimmer; Engineman 3rd Class Anthony Torro, boat engineer; Boatswain’s Mate 3rd Class Dalton Thompson, coxswain; and Seaman Madison Allen, bow hook.

“When we launched the RHIB, the turtle was about 700 or 800 yards away from us,” said Thompson.

Allen said the turtle was tangled in a makeshift fishing net built out of jugs, metal wire, hooks and netting.

“The netting and wire were wrapped around the turtle’s fin,” said Allen. “People put these types of traps together to catch fish, and the turtle ended up getting caught.”

Bean said when the jugs start bobbing up and down in the water it signals something has been caught. That is how the lookout noticed that there was something struggling in the water.

“He looked tired and stressed,” said Bean. “I really wanted to save this turtle and not leave him out there. When we got to the turtle, we tried to grab a hold of the jugs first, but it kept swimming away.”

Reaching the turtle was the first step in what turned out to be the difficult process of freeing it.

Bean said they couldn’t put anyone in the water because of the size of the turtle, how tangled it was and the potential hazard to a rescue swimmer, so they used a boat hook to pull the entangled turtle closer to the side of the RHIB so they could work on freeing it.

Allen said additional measures were taken to keep the turtle and the entangled floating jugs from getting too far from the RHIB.

“We attached the search and rescue tending line from the RHIB to the jugs to keep the turtle close,” said Allen.

Bean said the turtle’s right front fin had wire and line wrapped around it with hooks also penetrating the turtle’s flesh.

“I was thinking that we had to absolutely save this turtle when we got hold of it,” said Bean. “We weren’t leaving until this turtle was free.”

Allen said the turtle didn’t make it easy for its rescuers.

“While we were untangling him, he was flapping his fin in the air and always trying to swim away from the RHIB,” said Allen.

Capt. Bob Roth, Truman’s commanding officer, praised the team for the successful rescue.

“It was a great event all around,” he said. “The sea state was perfect and the RHIB team did a great job freeing the turtle and certainly saving its life,” he said. “In the Navy, we always strive to be good stewards of the environment. As professional mariners, we are obligated and take great pride in helping those fellow mariners in need. In this case, we applied our mariner culture of assistance to this wonderful creature. The smiles and excitement of the boat crew after they returned to the carrier were infectious, it was an uplifting experience.”

[kuhio98]

Hmmmm, I wonder what it would be like to be so financially secure that I could simply forget I had $98,000 in a plastic bag in a desk drawer? Well, I can dream, can't I?

Rabbi returns $98,000 he found in desk he bought on Craigslist

(CNN) -- A Connecticut rabbi returned $98,000 in cash he found in a plastic bag hidden behind drawers of an ordinary office desk he bought on Craigslist in September.

Rabbi Noah Muroff, a high school teacher at a private Jewish school in New Haven, discovered the money while dismantling the $150 desk to move it through a narrow doorway.

"The desk did not fit ... by just a fraction of an inch," Muroff said.

He said he unhooked file cabinet drawers and removed the top of the desk. Then came the unexpected surprise.

"Without detaching the desk, Muroff said, "this money, which was behind the drawers, was totally inaccessible."

The rabbi and his wife, Esther, were in total shock.

"We were looking at each other and laughing," he said. "This kind of thing only happens in the movies."

On the evening of September 2, just days before Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, Muroff and a friend picked up the desk from a woman, Patty, who lives just outside of New Haven. Muroff declined to identify the owner further.

"I knew this was her money," he said. "She told me she bought the desk from Staples and put it together herself."

Within 20 minutes of finding the money, around 11:30 p.m. that same evening, Muroff called Patty.

"She was speechless, without words," he said.

Muroff said the former owner told him she put her inheritance in the desk and after a while forgot it was there.

"I do not think there are too many people in this world that would have done what you did by calling me," Patty wrote in a thank you note to Muroff that CNN obtained.

The couple took their four children with them to return the money the next day, hoping their good deed will send "the message of honesty and integrity," he said.