Monday, August 8, 2005

Fund raising continues

Friday, Dylan finished his 11th round of chemo, and what a little “Tiger” he is, as Paul calls him. Dylan has not vomited once through this round and he looks and feels great. The diarrhea has set in though, but we can cope with that. Saturday morning, Lynn, Greg & Thomas took us to “Six Flags” in New Jersey for the day. It was very hot but it was a great experience. The theme park was very busy, with roller coaster queues being 3 hours long! Tim and Lynn did make it onto Nitro, which Tim said was the best coaster he had ever been on in his life. They were hoping to get onto the famous “Kingda Ka” but the darn thing broke down before they made it through the queue. Dylan went on the ride “Skull Mountain” I didn’t think he would, but he did and he loved it. It was sort of like a mini coaster in the dark.

Well, it was a huge weekend for fundraising! Back home in Australia, they had the “Digging it for Dylan” benefit gig and raised $1,197. Thank you to everyone involved in that event, particularly my brother Rick and his friend Kathryn who put in an enormous effort to make the night a success. Here in New York, Cabin Fever’s Karaoke night was incredible raising a total of approx $3,700. Lots of people attended, there were heaps of fantastic raffle prizes and people sang songs all night. Dylan laid in the arms of his new chicky babe, Justine, I think he was pretending to sleep just so she had to cuddle him! Dylan didn’t sing but he did have a thrilling time revving up a motor bike outside he club and helping dad bring in the raffle prize of Australian beer. Cain had lots of fun and got up singing, “are you gonna be my girl” by Jet, the whole club loved it, clapping along. Yes, I did embarrass myself and sang a couple of songs, Tim didn’t brave it though. We all had such a fabulous night and we made a lot of new friends. A couple of the parents from the Ronald McDonald House came along too, it was nice to be all out of our usual enviroments and having fun. There are so many people to thank for this event, but in particular, Gene and all the staff at Cabin Fever, Steve from American Idle, Billy, Paul Nicholls, Steve & Lisa, Phoebe Smith, Fiona Gosschalk, Bahara Farzin, Heathe St Claire, NewsCorp, Frank Ford, Scott McKenzie, Shaylee, The Australian Consulate, The Australian wine bureau, Team Continuum, Gabriel, Dave and of course an enormous thank you to Skye! What a voice Skye has, she’s a real rock star! Also, thank you to everyone who came along and supported Dylan - without you the night would not have been such a success. I also can’t forget to thank Bec, for seeing me safely home at 4am!!! Tim and the boys made it back to the Ronald McDonald House at 1am, leaving me to let my hair down. Needless to say I spend the whole day in bed on Sunday recovering, which is why this update is late. It has been over a year since I have had a night out like that, and truly enjoyed myself. It was good because I didn’t feel guilty like I thought I would, I guess because all of my conversations with people were about Dylan and his little face was everywhere. Steve had arranged for photos of Dylan to flash up behind the stage on a projector all night, it was really great.

Tonight we will meet the New York Yankee’s (Baseball Team) and Dylan will get to watch his very first live game.