Dear Friend,
Last month I received a phone call from a woman who had just completed her course of chemotherapy treatments at the NYU Clinical Cancer Center. She was calling to tell me how disappointed she was to be done with her weekly treatments. "It sounds crazy," she told me. "But I actually looked forward to coming in every week. Those massages were such a treat." There is simply no better way for me to describe what The R.E.S.T. Initiative is accomplishing every day with dozens of cancer patients just like this one; slowly we are chipping away at the fear and anxiety that have long been associated with chemotherapy.
I founded The R.E.S.T. Initiative last year after my own experience with cancer and chemotherapy. I came to believe that there had to be a way to ease the chemotherapy experience by adding a positive and nurturing component to a process that is normally defined by fear, grief and pain. Our mission is simple: through the power of human touch, we work to alleviate the fear, anxiety and stress of chemotherapy treatment by bringing free massage therapies to cancer patients directly into the chemotherapy treatment rooms.
In January we launched our program at the NYU Clinical Cancer Center in New York City. Our clinical director, along with six full-time massage therapists, bring massages to more than 100 cancer patients weekly, five days a week and all of our services are provided free to every patient.
In just eleven months we have successfully raised over $500,000 and helped almost 5,000 patients through difficult and often debilitating treatments. The response from patients, administrators, nurses and doctors has been overwhelmingly positive and supportive.
As we all know, cancer has become an epidemic that seems to affect each and every one of us. Our program successfully manages to help those afflicted in a very simple and pure way, but we cannot continue without your help. In order for us to keep bringing this much-needed relief to cancer patients, we desperately need financial support. Our plan for 2010 is to expand our program to at least one other hospital while maintaining our existing full-time program at NYU. In order to reach this goal, we need to raise $1 million dollars in 2010, a feat that is simply impossible without the generous support of friends and family like you who believe in our program. Every dollar raised will not only help to sustain what we have built thus far, but will also benefit other patients at other hospitals across the country by allowing us to hire additional staff to facilitate growth in other cities.
I recognize the current economy is taking its toll on all of us, but for cancer patients, it compounds their stress even more as they face their illness. I hope you will give as generously as you can to help bring them some comfort and relief during these stressful times. I am confident that through your support The R.E.S.T Initiative will continue to have an enormous impact and long-lasting success.
With Warm Regards, 
Pamela Schein Murphy
