If you’ve ever seen me in person you know I wear a white bracelet around my right wrist.  You can certainly see it in almost every picture of me within the last year.  The bracelet reads, “sTAY strong”.  I often get asked what this means and I haven’t yet gotten good at a concise answer.  It’s a challenge for me to quickly say how it connects to me – it’s even more of a challenge to tell people how deep that emotional connection is.  I figured I’d write my answer here and see where it goes…

Taylor Rivera, a beautifully charming teenager faced a very rare childhood cancer and found herself in and out of treatment for several years.  She had a very close friendship with my friend Kennedy.  Amanda Peebles, the cancer girl I got the closest to (as you can read here) also looked up to Taylor.  It was a close group of kids fighting cancer.

When Taylor passed, at her funeral I was given a bracelet by one of her family members.  I was able to attend the funeral with Amanda (one of the last events I got to spend with her outside the hospital).  Taylor’s theme was sTAY strong.  TAY is for Taylor.  It’s a phrase that to this day keeps the community going when it gets tough.  We have a hard time imagining the strength it must take to endure the long-term battle of childhood cancer – certainly even worse when you consider the daily symptoms.  The strength the kids pull from is beyond anything I’ve ever seen or exemplified in my life.  It’s almost impossible for me to imagine the strength.

I wear this because every time I look at it, it reminds me of these two girls, Amanda & Taylor.  Together they fought and they passed within months of each other.  I vowed to always wear it to remind me to keep fighting the same way these girls did – to do all I can to make their sacrifice help other kids who are fighting.  It’s what reminds me of my duty in this lifetime to make their memory one that saves others.

Now you can imagine how hard this is to explain quickly, right? I have a humble sacredness to Amanda’s and Taylor’s story, and their memory is inspiring to me every single day.

So, in honor of Taylor and Amanda, wake-up every day and sTAY strong.

After an exciting holiday and before I left Denver I received a phone call from Donavan inviting me to a Denver Nuggets game in the Make-A-Wish suite. Donavan (on the left in the photo above) is my good friend who has battled childhood cancer for the past several years and is now doing exceptionally well. I met Donavan through Amanda Peebles as they were boyfriend and girlfriend when Amanda was going through the worst time of her treatment. Donavan has inspired me and has become one of my closest friends. The smile in his eyes is one that you will always remember and appreciate. He is looking great and starting to feel better. This past year was his first year back in school. I am so proud of him and his family for their ability to thrive through this crisis.

A special thank you to Make-A-Wish Colorado who provides this kind of entertainment often for kids and their families, they truly are an incredible organization.

I consider myself so lucky to know these heroes. I can’t help but share with you all. Below are a few pictures from the game – Donavan, thanks man. Can’t thank you enough for the friendship and the time.

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After literally almost a year in silence as to what I am working on in the Childhood Cancer space, I am finally ready to make it public – and I’m excited!

When thousands of children every year are diagnosed with childhood cancer across the United States they are thrown into a battle for survival.  Their families are faced with a whirlwind of decisions to make for treatment, financial logistics, and emotional support.  All too often they find a lack of information.

For years the major players within childhood cancer non-profits have attempted to form coalitions and alliances to unite the childhood cancer community – both on message and on initiatives.  Many of these efforts have failed, but a few are finally starting to gain momentum.

I happen to believe that a national united effort can be empowered when it’s supported by statewide or regional coalitions; and it turns out I wasn’t alone.  I have joined efforts with a team of people who are helping to unite the childhood cancer community by helping build statewide coalitions.  This project, entitled Gold Force is focused on helping locate resources and recruiting people to create statewide coalitions.

Gold Force is an independent project (separate from any 501c3) that offers structure, advisors, and support for volunteers in each state who are dedicated to building collaborations in their area.

This is a huge undertaking – especially for states like California or Texas (the size of the state and number of resources) but I believe that by following Colorado and Tennessee (who have already setup coalitions similar to this successfully) that it can be done and the results are most impressive.  The best thing we can offer the children and families facing childhood cancer is a coordinated hub of information and established relationships that can provide this vital information.

Although this project might separate me from the connection with the kids and families (because literally I will be hiding behind a mountain of paperwork, conference calls, and online logistics) a bit more than I’d like, I know it will serve a greater purpose and the largest amount of kiddos!

If you can help or get involved, please contact me! We need the help.

This post talks about Amanda Peebles – for those of you who don’t know about her, you can read more here.

On Sunday it will have been 1 year since you left us. Miss you more than ever.

Love you mandabear.

A non-profit organization in Denver, Colorado recently filmed an up-close and personal vignette on my good friend Donavan. I met Donavan about a year ago and have met few that are as caring and kind as he is. He was Amanda Peebles boyfriend. It is so nice to see such a well put together video of him and his family sharing their story. It’s important to note Donavan’s unique ear to ear smile – it’s certainly what I see every time I am around him. He is a very cool dude!

In a perfect world kids wouldn’t get cancer. But we don’t live in a perfect world. I’ve asked myself over and over, am I up trying to fix something that cannot be fixed? The answer is no – it can be fixed. Research in the past thirty years has proven just that. Survival rates are so much higher than they used to be. But wait…research did not save Amanda Peebles (her picture is above). Her life was cut short at 12 years old due to a lack of research, a lack of a cure. How sad it is that she and her family were told that nothing more could be done?

We are coming up on the one year mark of Amanda’s passing. I remember her each day. Amanda was a girl who knew and observed what others were struggling with; very rarely did she ever focus on herself. I used to sit with her and play while she was at the hospital – we got some pretty good use out of a fake cash register and plastic credit cards, playing store (she always enjoyed keeping flawless paperwork of your charges). When she would get sick, you saw it in her eyes – she would be sparkling with excitement with an enormous smile and it would suddenly change. Her eyes would look away and she’d fight the feeling of nausea. Finally she would calmly say, “I don’t think I can play anymore”. Amanda would apologize for not being able to continue having fun – she felt bad she couldn’t be happier while I was there. She wanted to make sure I had a good time.

The pain is not mine alone – it is shared by her sister, her brother, and her parents. Amanda’s journey impacted their lives forever. I see how amazing her older sister is and the path that she must continue without her sister. She is an example to me in every way. Her mother has been at every event possible, helping to continue this fight. It is incredible to see the strength they have.

I am continuing to do what I can. In several months I will be launching a new effort with a refreshing direction of funding the cure for childhood cancer. It will be a product of my experiences the past few years in this community. In Amanda’s honor, I will do what I can to make sure another family get’s more time with their child.

I want your help. I need your help. Your ideas, thoughts, experiences, and knowledge can help me continue to grow this effort. Please contact me if you have a desire to help me and these kids. I can’t save Amanda, almost a year ago I said my final goodbye to her, but her life changed mine and I can’t avoid doing all I can. She lives on through mine and your actions to save others.

Please contact me at 858-212-2191 or email at j@jeremybliler.com to be a resource for my new ventures.

The art of collaboration is humbling. When thousands or even millions of people unite to achieve the same outcome it is a tricky combination of luck, strategy, and sacrifice. I spend a lot of effort working with the childhood cancer cause. However, you may notice that there is no leader in Childhood Cancer awareness or support. When asked to list the number one organization in this cause you might be quick to say, “St Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital” or “American Cancer Society”. These are both fine organizations but they are not major players in pediatric cancer when you boil down the numbers.

The cause of curing Childhood Cancer is not ubiquitous in our culture. Many people know that kids get cancer. They do not know how much funding fails to go towards curing it. More money has been spent to solve poverty, homelessness, and environmentalism in the past month than there has been towards childhood cancer in the past decades.

Let’s discuss for a second the culture inside the cause – the hundreds of organizations that are 501c3 non-profits working to help patients and families with Childhood Cancer. I will only talk about my personal experience because that is all I can speak accurately about. The cause is competitive, it’s distilled, and it’s got a million different directions. Unlike Breast Cancer, Autism, Aids, and other causes, Childhood Cancer has not managed to unite in branding – it is not backed by one message and a united group of non-profits working towards the same cause.

I write this blog entry to let you all know of the realities of this community – I do what I can to unite these organizations but even I don’t have access to most of the people in this cause yet. I can only hope that the masses can come together and make this happen. It’s important to realize the reality of this cause and face the facts. What’s even more challenging is trying to explain this to a child and parent when they ask why so many people aren’t aware or aligned with the mission of curing and helping their child.