Freethinking Cancer Patient Needs Help!

This information will also be sent out shortly to the SECULAR Center's mailing list. 

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Yesterday I received an e-mail message from Megan, a member of Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers. Megan's best friend, Kate, is battling a brain tumor and will be evaluated for an experimental treatment at MD Anderson's Brain and Spine Center from February 7th to the 11th. The Lance Armstrong Foundation is sponsoring her plane fare, but Kate needs a place to stay and transportation while she's here. Kate and her husband are also atheists. Today I spoke with Megan on the phone at length about Kate's situation.


In Megan's words, "Kate is a marvelous woman who volunteers tirelessly to help others in her community. She is witty, smart, and fantastically creative. Her medical care has exhausted her family’s savings, so a hotel room is not affordable. She will be traveling alone, as her husband and three young children will be staying in Iowa. Kate is able-bodied and needs no special assistance. Most people have no idea she has a brain tumor. But after five spinal surgeries, spinal radiation and gamma-knife radiation to her brain (the tumors started in her spinal cord and climbed to her brain), she is running out of treatment options. We are crossing our fingers for MD Anderson’s treatment."

The SECULAR Center is working to find Kate somewhere to stay from February 7th to 11th while she's in Houston. She will be evaluated for the treatment at 1515 Holcombe Blvd, near the Medical Center and it would be great if she could stay somewhere close to there. If not, perhaps someone would be willing to drive Kate to and from her evaluations? We're also hoping to find someone who can pick Kate up at the airport on Sunday and drop her off again on Thursday. If you can't help with lodging or driving, perhaps you would be willing to make a donation towards Kate's medical expenses or toward her travel/food expenses while she's here in Houston? If you're willing to help in any of these ways, please e-mail us!

I have personally checked this out and verified that Kate is a real person, a member of the Freethought community, who needs our help. I would offer my own guest room, but I will be out of town for work that week. Kate's situation is one of the reasons that I founded the SECULAR Center - to help people in need. Kate is in need of our support. Please help us help Kate.

About the SECULAR Center Blog!

Welcome to the SECULAR Center's blog! This blog is for SECULAR Center news and updates, as well as local and world news relating to the community of people that are free of supernatural beliefs. Free of supernatural beliefs primarily means that we don't believe in a god or gods. This includes Atheists, Agnostics, Humanists, Brights, Freethinkers, and whatever other names we choose to apply to ourselves.

The SECULAR Center (http://www.secularcenterusa.org/) stands for Secular Education Community of Understanding, Learning, Activism, and Research. What does that mean? It means that we are building a community of nonbelievers to participate in community events and activism such as volunteering at local nonprofit organizations. Our long-term plan is to develop and execute our own educational community service programs such as tutoring students, computer training, and parent education. We hope this will also help to educate the general public in regards to the morals and ethics of the godless, as well as give us a community center to meet and socialize at. There is a great misconception out there that Atheists and Freethinkers are amoral - a 2002 Pew Poll showed 66% of people in the south view Atheists unfavorably. Let's change that!

If you agree with our mission or want to support our efforts, please visit our website at http://www.secularcenterusa.org/ and sign up for our newsletter! We are also in the process of refining and further developing our vision and mission, so if you have any input to that effect, please e-mail us at secularcenterusa@gmail.com or comment on this post!

As of this first post, the SECULAR Center has 185 supporters in 10 states and 4 countries around the world! We have had two community volunteer events in Houston and are having a social event in Houston this Thursday, July 30th at 6:00 pm at a local bar. E-mail secularcenterusa@gmail.com for details if you'd like to attend!

Thanks!
Noelle
President
SECULAR Center USA
"Godless for Good"
http://www.secularcenterusa.org/