If you read last week’s post – The Dark Side To Big Dreams & How To Cope With Crying At Starbucks –  you’ll know I had a bit of a meltdown in LA last month. Thankfully, today I’m pausing to simply feel grateful. Grateful to you for being part of our community; grateful to every single person who has ever made a donation to The Foundation; and grateful to our partners and champions who continue to spread the word about our tribe of big dreamers.

Thank YOU

Close friends of mine recently watched our ABC News Appearance and sent us a $500 – we believe in what the The Foundation is doing for cancer survivors and we want to be part of it – donation. I almost cried all over them (yes, again) because I’m so damn grateful for the financial and emotional support along this big dreaming path. New and old friends have fed me, housed me, and donated time and money to change the lives of cancer survivors they will likely never meet. Talk about a reason to cry…

As we prepare to launch a North American program in San Francisco and make plans for two international programs in 2014 (hello India and Africa), there is no way we could do it without the continued support of audacious dreamers and world changers like you.

To check out our Upcoming Programs click here or to make a difference in the lives of our next 40 participants, join our 2013 Tribe of Donors:

American Donors: 

Canadian Donors:

Thank You G Adventures

Two years ago, on the final day of my 2-week adventure through Namibia, Botswana, and Zambia with G Adventures, I stood under the spray of Victoria Falls and – for the first time since my diagnosis – felt truly alive again. This moment inspired the bucket-list component of our programs and changed my life forever. For that, I will always be grateful.

G Adventures is the largest small group travel company in the world and an organization that makes me proud to be a Canadian. Join the 720,000+ people on G’s Facebook Page and you’ll likely find yourself tempted to experience an epic adventure of your own. This week, G featured our video  – woohoo!! – on the Looptail blog – Survivors Get A New Perspective in India. (HUGE props to our filmmaking partner, Mark Halliday of Moonrider Productions):

“Here at G Adventures, it’s no secret that we believe that travel changes peoples’ lives. In fact, it’s one of the cornerstones of our ideology. So there’s nothing that warms our heart quite like reading a customer testimonial about how their G Adventures trip made a difference – and when it’s a story like Terri’s, we might just get a little teary-eyed as well. Click here to keep reading…

G Adventures – we love you and are so grateful to you for sharing our story with your tribe of change makers & adventurers.

Thank You Voluntourism.org 

If you’re new to A Fresh Chapter and haven’t heard my story a zillion times OR if you feel inspired to plan your own volunteer adventure and need some tips to get you started, here’s a recently published piece in the Voluntourist – Volunteering As A Mechanism For Starting Over. Thank you David Clemmons and voluntourism.org for helping us share our story.

“Has a five-minute phone conversation ever become a hard line in the sand marking the difference between a “before” and “after” in your life? Maybe, like me, it only took three words to shift the trajectory of your life so dramatically that you couldn’t return to the person you had been before you heard them.

In October of 2009, at the age of only 30, the words, “You have cancer”, tilted my single, over-achieving, life on its axis. I quickly entered a world where climbing onto operating tables and sinking into chemotherapy chairs replaced my ascent up the corporate ladder. Shortly after treatment began, a white blood cell count of zero and the corresponding risk of a life-threatening infection led to a doctor sealing me into a pressurized isolation room for days on end. As I stared through a tiny square window at the top of the door, I choked on my tears and cursed myself for not appreciating every single opportunity life had presented, when I’d had the chance.” – click here to keep reading.

Enough about me. What about you? What are you grateful for today? What opportunities are waiting for you to take a chance? Scroll down to share your thoughts and comments.