With A Little Help from His Friends
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With A Little Help

With A Little Help from His Friends

 

by Scott A. Sumner

www.thunderbaybusiness.ca
    Michael Antcliffe invites you to walk a few steps with him on his journey to raise money for cancer treatment in Northwestern Ontario.    Michael is dying from cancer, and friends are very important to him. When he looks back at his life, he judges its value not by the money he
has made or the success he has achieved, but rather by the relationships he has built with the people he cares for the most. Now, Michael is looking to his friends to help him achieve his goal of raising funds to help provide care and comfort for others in his position.
   All donations support the Northern Cancer Fund of the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Foundation and remain in Northwestern Ontario to advance care for cancer patients. The Foundation’s goal is to raise enough money to name a patient waiting room in Michael’s memory.

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    Through the “I Owe Michael Antcliffe $10” page on Facebook, Michael is hoping to find the support of friends both locally and around the world to join him in his battle against cancer. The cost of joining Michael on his journey is only ten dollars, but the value of being his friend is much more—Michael is asking you to volunteer to have a friend whose life is taken by cancer.
    Today, Glenn Craig, President and CEO of the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Foundation, Regional Cancer Care North-West health care professional Karen Mellenchuk, and Michael Antcliffe himself launched the social networking-based fundraising campaign that aims to improve the care and comfort of those battling cancer in the Northwestern Ontario region.
    “Michael is a remarkably brave and ambitious young man,” said Craig. “Even as he walks his own cancer journey, his focus is on the cancer patients that will come after him. His efforts are entirely selfless and will benefit others who find themselves facing this devastating disease.”
  The funds raised through remain in Northwestern Ontario to support cancer education & awareness, treatment and research. Donations can be made through a link on the “I Owe Michael Antcliffe $10” page on Facebook. People are also encouraged to become Facebook friends with    Michael so they can follow his progress.
   Michael hopes to have 100,000 friends accompany him on his journey. “Walk with me a few steps and volunteer to have a friend who is taken by cancer,” Antcliffe said. “If this works, I will have truly found a way to be rich in friends. The more friends I get, the more comfort and peace we all can take part in providing. I promise to update you from this day to my last.”
To become Facebook friends with Michael Antcliffe, simply search his name and send a friend request.
Michael Antcliffe
    “ Three years ago a friend of mine pointed out a mark on my back and said I should get it looked at right away. At that point I was in the easily manageable, very recoverable stage of malignant melanoma but once your bodies first line of defenses have been broken through you
fall into 10% of people who hope to make it 5 years. Three years into that battle it went further into my lymph nodes and into my bone so that 10% time frame is narrowing down. With the time I have left this is what I chose to do with my time,” said Michael Antcliffe who turned
36 years old in May of this year.“  After finishing school I spent 5 years as a youth care worker, which is an enriching kind of experience. Then I worked with a friend of mine at First Class Finishing, a guy I stayed in residence with at university. After the initial removal on my back I went back to work but my physical abilities deteriated. That work is just beyound me now. The tools I have left are my brain and my voice.”
    “ It about doing my best to take advantage of the situation I’m in and to provide as much care and comfort to people in a similar situation. Social media ( Facebook) has been the most successful means by which to do it. It has been three years and I haven’t spoken enough.
This is where my journey starts and I have invited people to come along with me, show the courage on a tough path and hopefully on the end of it we can do a lot of good for a lot of people.” said Antcliffe.
    Michael Antcliffe hopes to travel to the east coast as his first destination meeting as many people as he can along the way.“ I have 2 more rounds of chemotherapy before I can get another set of scans to see whether it is working, slowing down the progression of the cancer. July 7th is my tentative departure day,” said Antcliffe. “ The most important thing is the meaningful interaction with people that I admire and remember the most and value and cherish. Already on my journey on Facebook there have been friends that have lost loved ones
to cancer in the last six weeks. They have had an over swelling of support. If I can create something like this and keep it going that would be my goal. When my path is over hopefully it will still be around to help people who need it.”
   “ I would love to make it to the east coast and then Europe. Upon my return I would like to make it the west coast of Canada. If I can make all those three I will be quite happy. To find where my dad settled down in PEI and Nova Scotia would be the first step and to fish every
stream and lake along the way,” said Michael Antcliffe. “  You have to find hope. It isan’t just there for you to reach out for, you have to find hope. Online I have had heart-lifting examples of people who have found hope. It gives you examples and helps you define hope.”



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