In the last month, I have been making good progress on all fronts. My blood counts have been slowly but progressively getting better and my energy levels have increased. Though I still have days where I get tired pretty quickly, for the most part, it does not limit me too much. I have been able to make it to all my hockey games and am starting to see signs that my old form is coming back.
November was a busy month with it being mostly consumed by all the activities required for organizing my comedy night again this year. Besides the usual activities needed for this, e.g. selling of tickets, promotions on social media, follow up emails, etc., there were a few surprises this time around that I did not account for. Given how late I started this year’s fundraising activities, I had decided to not have a silent auction as it would be too much work to get the necessary items for it. Fortunately, I was forced to have one as I was receiving a few items from the Ottawa Senators; being a jersey signed by the team, a Dylan DeMelo signed hockey stick and tickets to an upcoming game. On top of this, Mary Ann’s cousin Nicole and her husband Kelly donated a weekend at their chalet near Mont Blanc, QC to the auction. I had no choice now but to create an auction and look to fill it even further with more things for people to bid on. Luckily, I was at home with a lot of “free” time to get all these things done. Not sure how I would have pulled this off if I was working. My goal this year was to have an online auction instead of a live one for a few reasons. It would allow bidders to start looking and bidding on the items sooner but, more importantly, it meant that I did not need to haul these items to the show and try to set them up so people could see them. Last year, we were limited on how we did this, both in space and time, thus it minimized the amount of potential revenue that could have been made.
With less than 2 weeks before my event on Nov 21, I still needed to sell more than 70 tickets to fill the place. All tickets need to be sold no less than one week prior to ensure that we have no outside “guests” at the event. There was a big push to sell in that last week with the last ones going on Thursday night, Nov 15, exactly one week before my event. I still cannot believe that I was able to not only sell out but to sell all 70 tickets in one week! On top of this, I had over 12 people on a wait list to get tickets after I sold out (totaling for another 20-30 tickets that could have been sold). That same Thursday had a lot more highlights in the day. That morning, I got an email from a local radio station Rebel 101.7, one I absolutely love and listen to all the time, asking if I wanted to visit them and be on air to promote my event. I immediately jumped at this chance even though I suspected that, by the time I would do the interview, I would probably be sold out. I saw it as a great chance to get more people visiting the silent auction, donating to the cause and/or sign up for next year. Later on in the day, I reached out to my contact at the Ottawa Senators to see if they would want more tickets. I already knew that Dylan DeMelo would be coming with his girlfriend but I suspected that he would not want to come alone. There was also talk that I could do a radio interview with Dylan some time to help promote the event. Given that I was now down to only 5 tickets remaining, I wanted to make sure that they had an opportunity to buy them before they were gone. I also took the time to mention that I had an upcoming radio interview scheduled to help nudge them along with getting me on air with their contacts. He finally got back to me after 6:00 PM and said that he would take all 5 tickets but, by that time, I was down to only 3 left. This was not going to be an issue as there is always cancelations that happen at the last minute but it was still a bit of a concern. He also offered me to come by the arena the next day to see the Sens practice and do a radio spot while I was there. Holy cow! I went from all these radio stations ignoring me to having two booked in the same day! On top of that, I was able to sell 180 tickets again this year, selling out the event two years in a row!
On Friday, Nov 16, I had to get up a bit early to drive to the other end of town to go to the rink and meet up with Aaron, my contact at the Ottawa Senators. I was to be there for 10:30 but it was a snowy day and I did not want to be late so I left the house at 9:30. This does not sound that late until I mention that I was playing hockey the night before and did not get to bed until after 1:00 AM. I made it to the arena with some time to spare so I went to the Home Depot nearby as I needed a couple of things and then went to the rink. I got in and sat in the stands while I watched the practice. Aaron joined me later and we chatted for a bit. He started asking questions about my event as he was typing an email. I suspected he writing notes for the TSN 1200 radio guys so I handed him my printed copy of my speaker notes. After the practice was done, he walked me downstairs near the players’ bench and back into the Senators dressing room. I looked inside to see a few Senators giving interviews. One of the goalies, Anders Neilsson, walked by me. This guy is at least 6’6” without skates and is probably just as wide with his equipment. Needless to say, my 6’0” frame seemed very small next to him. After this visit, Aaron walked me over to the room where TSN 1200 broadcasts out of when at the rink. I met Steve Lloyd, one of the announcers, and he set me up for my interview. As Steve asks his first question on air to me about the type of cancer I have, I go and mess it up. LYMPHOMA! You have LYMPHOMA, Darren, not Leukemia! I blame this mistake on having said the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society too many times. Not the best way to start an interview but I persevered and did not let it phase me. In the end, it was a great interview and I had a blast doing it. Afterwards, we headed back to the dressing room area where I waited for Dylan to be free to chat for a bit. While I was waiting, I watched a bit of the Philadelphia Flyers practice near the Senators bench. Many seemed to look at me funny as they were wondering what I was doing there. Dylan showed up and we chatted. I thanked him again for the auction items and looked forward to seeing him and his buddies Logan Brown and Christian Wolanin at the comedy night. As Aaron escorted me out of the building, we got to chatting about how he was going to pay for the extra tickets. I hinted that I was always willing to take more signed stuff for the auction in exchange and left it at that. I would not be disappointed.
The weekend went by uneventfully and I spent most of the time getting myself organized for the upcoming event. Sunday night, I had a late hockey game again which proved a bit difficult to get up early the next morning as I had my Rebel interview scheduled for 8:40 AM. This time around, MA was able to join me and we were again early for it. We arrived around 8:10 with coffees in hand which were appreciated by Kornicky and Mel, the morning DJs. It was a weird experience walking in as there was no receptionist and the main office door was wide open. We quietly walked it and waited for them to be off the air to greet us. It was only the 4 of us in the office at that time. MA and I waited for our timeslot and chatted with the hosts in between air times. When my time came up, I was seated in front of the mic while the other two shared the other mic. This time I remembered that I have Lymphoma but it did help that I wrote it in big black letters on my speaker notes so I would not forget. I was on the air for a lot longer than I was expecting and having a great time. After the interview, MA and I thanked them for having us and then went home. If you want to hear both interviews, I have the audio on my website, https://laughter4cancer.com/media.
That afternoon, I spent a few hours collating all the tickets so that it would be easier to hand them out at the event. Ironically, the next day, Absolute Comedy, the club hosting our event, called me to tell me not to give out the tickets at the show and that they would handle it at the box office. This made things much easier for me and my volunteers. Knowing full well that I would get some cancellations, I thought I would see if I could get people to let me know a few days in advance so that I could try to get them to the people on the wait list. I had set a deadline of Wednesday, the day before the event, for people to let me know if they would not make it. When I got up Thursday morning and checked my email at 10:00 AM and still had no cancellations, I was thinking that it may be a calmer day. Boy was I wrong. Shortly thereafter, the cancellations started. I was on the phone for the rest of the day transferring tickets from the people cancelling to the people on the wait list. In the end, I was able to make 15 people very happy. Now that I did not need volunteers to hand out tickets, I was able to repurpose them to sell 50/50 tickets. I had three groups of two people assigned to sections in the room to sell tickets. This strategy worked very well as we sold $1,200 in tickets, raising an additional $600, before the show even started. The comics were great that night and everyone had a fabulous time. I received nothing but positive feedback on the evening.
On Friday, Nov 22, MA and I were heading to the Senators game with the tickets I had won for being one of the top fundraisers for the LLSC. It was Ottawa’s Hockey Fights Cancer game so it was nice to be there. Our tickets were in a box on the 4th level but were still great seats. Also, the Senators won the game which made it even better. On Saturday, Nov 23, MA and I were again out and about town but, this time, it was to celebrate Barb’s end of Chemo treatments, a friend of MA. It was a good night and great to see everyone. By the end of the night though, I was feeling the effects of all my socializing this week so I was getting tired very quickly. The next few days were spent resting. The silent auction closed on Sunday, Nov 24, during the Grey Cup game. For the first time, I was able to watch the first half of the game with all my family. We decided to eat appies for dinner while we watched the game together. When the auction closed, we had raised an additional $1,700, another huge success! When I started my campaign this year, I was expecting to struggle to get to $10,000. In the end, I was able to raise over $16,000! Thank you to all who helped with my cause.
I was really hoping that, by now, I would be able to tell you that my cough and sore throat would have cleared but that is not the case. I had it for over 2 months so I was not sure if it was exacerbated by the go-karting that was done on Saturday, Nov 30, but I am sure it did not help. On this day, we were celebrating Richard’s wedding by having a bachelor party with the boys. The plan was to race, then do dinner and the casino, all of Richard’s favorite things. The combination of the exhaust fumes from the indoor track and the freezing temperatures has caused my cough to get much worst in the following days. I had to bail early that night as I was getting very tired quickly. Monday night, I was coughing so bad I thought that both my lungs were going to come out of my body. By Tuesday, Dec 3, I snuck into MA’s doctor’s appointment to have her look at me. She ordered a chest x-ray and the results were that I had a sinus infection and bronchitis. She ordered up some antibiotics and a nasal spray and we were on our way. That night, I was getting a fever and chills so MA was monitoring me all night. She mentioned to me the next day that my highest temperature was 39.1°C! This was a bit of a worry at the time but we decided to wait it out and see how it would progress. I have had no more fevers but am stuffed up. I have had to cancel playing hockey this week while I recover. I have pretty much spent the rest of the week cooped up inside in my pajamas. I have not been feeling well enough to make it outside. I did start to feel a bit better on Saturday. This was the night of my office Christmas party and I wanted to make an appearance. Though I did make it out, we had a short night as I was feeling rough and losing my voice. It was great to see everyone and their spouses. The food was great but way too much. I had a hard time eating all that was presented, and MA and I went home with 3 doggie bags!
It will be another busy December. Next weekend we have another 65th birthday party for a friend of mine on the 13th and a 40th birthday party the following day. I will see my Ottawa doctor on Monday Dec 16th and then heading to Toronto on Wednesday for a PET and CT scan on Thursday with a doctor’s visit on Friday. This time, I will be heading on my own with MA and family to join me on Friday. We will be spending the weekend at my brother’s with my Mom and then heading up to Kirkland Lake to visit with MA’s family. While in Toronto, it would be great if my extended family would like to meet up for some Pitro, hint, hint. I have not played in a few years and am getting rusty. Also, Geneviève would like to play a bit more to learn the game so it would be a good opportunity for her to have some experienced players coaching her. My next update will likely only be in January, once I have had some time to rest. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, in case I do not see you in all my travels in the coming weeks.