Redwood City, CA
1-800-348-8911

Heartfelt Thanks from Deep Inside a Fox-hole...

I was diagnosed with malignant breast cancer at the end of July 2003, just before I began my annual vacation. For a couple of weeks, only my closest friends and my Comm Center knew about it. Just before undergoing surgery to remove the tumor, I shared my situation with peers around the world by posting information about it to the 9-1-1 Console dispatcher e-mail discussion list.

Dispatchers help others; it's our job to do so. But dispatchers also help each other, and not just within their own "trenches" in Comm Centers. Because I couldn't go to the annual APCO Conference, dispatchers I've met in other states organized a "Go Get Goodies" detail for me at the Vendor Exhibition. They shipped freebies and some other personal notes and gifts to me so I could feel like I'd been to the Conference, just a little bit. E-mails to wish me well zipped across the Internet, greeting cards began to arrive at my Comm Center for me, and at my home, via the Postal Service. I decided to take the words "keep us updated" at face value and continued to post missives about my progress through surgery and chemotherapy to the 9-1-1 Console list.

Very good friends maintained daily contact with me via on-line messaging, asking how I was -- and I told them exactly how I was, in excruciating detail . And yet, they still performed their virtual knocks at my computer door to make sure I was surviving. Some of my distant friends formed alliances and plotted amongst themselves to share their support. Some of their plans were kept secret from me. Those sneaks!

In early September, as just as I was to begin chemotherapy, Kathy Cline (from Golden, CO) decided she would make a special trip to California . She wanted to cook Thanksgiving dinner for me. We spent a lot of time discussing what she would bring with her, and what I would have available at my home for her to make a traditional meal complete. My job was to make sure there was milk (for real mashed potatoes) and Cool Whip to top a pumpkin pie; another friend was tasked to bring the pie.

What I didn't know was that Kathy was conspiring with another great friend of mine in Australia to bring him along with her, never saying a word about it to me or anyone else except Kathy Christopher (from Atlanta, GA). It was a secret from 9/5/03 until the night before Thanksgiving when the visiting Kathy arrived and called me out to my carport to "see the big turkey she brought" [me].

I'm surprised my neighbors didn't call the cops when I started screaming with glee as Maurice stepped out of the darkness. Thanksgiving was so very special last year, despite breast cancer surgery and chemotherapy side effects.

And in the interim, dispatchers I've never met were galvanized to provide me financial support. Pay for overtime work has routinely financed my attendance at APCO Conferences each year. Once I was off work, on medical disability, there wasn't any extra money. There were, however, huge medical bills not completely covered by insurance. So I had something other than cancer fears and chemo side effects to keep me awake at night with worry.

I've spent more than 25 years providing assistance to others through my career in Public Safety Communications. I could NOT ask anyone to help me, not for transportation, not to bring me groceries or pick up prescriptions, and *certainly* not to give me money. It wasn't just my pride - times are tough for everyone, I reasoned.

But my dearest friends were listening to my fears and they contacted Kevin Willett on my behalf, suggesting 9-1-1 Cares get involved. Kevin e-mailed me to call him - on the toll-free line - and he broached the subject of activating 9-1-1 Cares for donations to help me out with my medical bills . Folks may be amused that his biggest selling point (in MY mind) was the fact that anybody who didn't care to contribute simply wouldn't. Those people would read the post on the discussion lists, hit delete and move on. And so he convinced me, and it was done. Every donation of any size has helped with bills which continue to mount. I cannot express how incredibly valuable this assistance has been to me. Think of the most grateful you have ever felt in your life and quadruple it. THAT'S how I feel . Absolutely! Thank you, everyone! (Note: The McDonald's gift certificates were especially wonderful.)

I am also very proud to be associated with PSTC and 9-1-1 Cares in making the Dispatcher Breast Cancer Awareness Pin a reality. I'd thought about such a pin shortly after being diagnosed, and now it exists, to be used to help other dispatchers suffering from this disease. Kathy Christopher provided invaluable visual aid by creating draft graphics based on my written description, so the pin company could see what I wanted.

Dispatchers helping dispatchers; that's what 9-1-1 Cares is all about.

Happy to be here, proud to serve.
Linda Olmstead
http://www.gryeyes.com

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