Heart4Hope Project

Christmas is drawing near. A time of giving and a time to bring cheer to some people. Below is the story of a courageous young lady who has survived against all odds. Not only that, she has bravely trudge on to bring awareness of a condition known as Neurofibromatosis. I hope that you would be able to contribute in your way to help her plight.

In the words of a wonderful neighbour and friend of mine, Cordelia, who has been championing Yvonne's cause.

"Heart4Hope Project is one that is undertaken by an extremely brave gal named Yvonne Foong."

Can you remember your teenage schooling years when you are between the ages of 13 – 17? For her, it's a series of medical checkups, losing her sense of balance & hearing due to benign tumours growing in her brain & spine. She has gone through operation after operation on its removal.

Through no fault of hers, her peers initially ostracised her then for being different, misinterpreting her condition as cancer, others offering unhelpful suggestions that her parents were to blame for conceiving her late in life and so on. What she has is Neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder which unfortunately falls onto certain individuals.

Did she moan her life? Of course she did initially, like most of us do after a fall. Did she let her misfortune define her life? No. Instead of moping on her own misfortunes, she opened her heart to help others like participating in the blogathon in August 2005 ie blogging for charity cause for Eden Handicap Service Centre. She even started an online support group for Neurofibromatosis.

Through her blog, she had brought countless awareness to others who are in need:
- Poesy Liang (http://www.poesyliang.net/), asking readers to donate any spare cash to her for her benign spine tumour operation.
http://www.yvonnefoong.com/archives/2005/11/shedding-hope-for-poesy/#comments
- Lori Miller. This young lady suffers from Adenocarcinoma, stage-IV, asking readers of her blog to donate.
http://www.yvonnefoong.com/archives/2005/08/cancer-got-her-tongue/#comments
& many more.

Fyi, I'd seen her grow as a beautiful person, even more so after she embraced Christ in her life. She has been through much tribulations in life for someone so young at 19 and yet she can still face her life with a positive attitude and dignity in spite of this.

Could you open your heart for a caring & brave girl like her? She needs funds for an operation to remove her brain tumours that led to her being completely deaf now & a hearing aid.

In Yvonne's words:
"This tumor can grow large enough to push my brainstem out of position, thus distrupting oxygen flow to the brain. It will lead to difficulty in breathing, swallowing, and subsequently death."

Please contribute to her t-shirt fund-raiser as follows:-
i) RM 30.00 for one, RM 50.00 for two.
ii) Sizes: Baby T, M, L and XL (Yvonne is wearing Baby T size as the model)
iii) To know how the t-shirt looks like, please click on the link below:-
http://www.yvonnefoong.com/archives/2005/11/some-pictures/#comments

Buy a t-shirt, save a life today!Please email me at cordylee@gmail.com for more details on this project especially if you are interested to buy this t-shirt. At the same time, could you please forward this email to your friends? Thank you.

May God Bless you for making a difference.