Help Support Rock Out Myeloma — January 15

Glenn: Hey, everybody, and happy holidays from me. Your hospitality, friend. Glenn, listen, it’s that time of year where you have to really start focusing on one another again. Career time is over. It’s time to get back to humanity. And one of my friends from the industry, Alan, he’s been going through some stuff with his family, and we wanted to share that story and bring something to your attention that we could all help with to make the world a better place. So let’s welcome our friend Alan, who not only is out there semi competing with me at another company, but he’s also fighting against myeloma. Much more real and important battle. Alan, how are you doing, buddy? I’m doing great, Glenn. Always good to catch up with you. And I really appreciate you having me on today. Thank you. Yeah, sure. My pleasure. So you have a personal connection to this? What’s going on? Yeah. So my brother was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in January of 24, and my family had never even heard of multiple myeloma. And unfortunately, we’ve had to become fast experts. And this is this is a very rough disease. A misunderstood disease not well known disease with no cure. So based on that experience that we’ve had and continue to have, my family and I decided we need to help others that are going through what we’re going through.

Allen: Right. And this is one of those things. And when you say it’s very uncommon that what typically happens is they don’t get the funding for people that that have that. And it’s not really considered a top tier thing. It’s really weird to have to rank diseases, but I think we know how everything works and things that affect more people get more funding, and that’s why we’re trying to make a difference today, because it does not have that going for it. So Ellen, tell us a little bit about how you are working to help try to bring attention to this.

Glenn: Yeah. So my niece came to me and said, you know, we really need to do something. I’m super proud of her. She’s the one that started this whole thing. Alexa O’Leary. And the main mission is to help families both emotionally and financially. Right. When you’re going through this, this is really a diagnosis for the entire family, not just for the diagnosed individual. Okay. And you’re going about your life one day, and then a boulder is just dropped on your head, right? Whether it’s you or a family member. And there are so many expenses that you don’t even think of. Forget the chemotherapy and the hundreds of thousands of dollars I’m talking about. I need to be in the city for my spouse for a week because they’re getting treatment, and I need a hotel. I need a dog walker. I need, you know, and when you’re going through this, that one little stress can really be the straw that broke the camel’s back, right? Because you’re not working. You’re probably not, you know, pulling money into the household or or it’s it’s, you know, maybe half of what you’re typically doing because your wife’s working or not or whoever, whoever the afflicted person is, is not working.

Glenn: So we knew we we really had to do something. And and I’ll give you one really quick example of a person we helped. So so you get the gist of it. You know, we have a process on our website where you could apply, for financial help. And we had a woman reach out and say, listen, I haven’t been able to help because I’m going work, rather because I’m going through treatment and I have back payments on my electrical bill. It amounted to a little over $600. Right. We paid her electric bill, and it was the reaction we got from this woman, just that we removed that one little stress off her plate so that that’s what we’re looking to do with the organization. On top of that, what you said is raise awareness, right? Everyone knows breast cancer, heart disease. These are the things that come top of mind when it comes time to donating time, money, research, things like that. So we really need to increase the awareness of multiple myeloma out there.

Allen: That’s true. Breast cancer gets all of October. You’re just looking for a day in January, January 15th when putting out a fundraiser here on Long Island, New York. But listen, most of you are from around the world. You’re probably not here on Long Island, but you can still help. Tell us about January 15th and how people can help.

Glenn: Yeah, so we’re having a fundraiser. It’s called Rock Out myeloma And we’re going to have music and raffles and 5050, and it’s going to be a lot of fun. We’re getting support from the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation. They’re going to have some representatives there. It’s going to be a tremendous event. All tables are already sold out. But that’s only step one that gets people in the door. Then, you know, the way we really generate donations and everything like that are through, like the 5050 in the baskets in the raffles. So but if you are not able to come locally, as you said, Glenn, a lot of people are all over the country. All over the world. You can go to our website fighting against myeloma. Com and you could donate right there on the site, or you could enter the 50 over 50. You don’t have to be there in person. You could go on our site, enter the 50 over 50 and you could win just like someone that’s there in person for the I like. So yeah. So there are a lot of different ways that that you could, you could get involved and go to the website and go to the events area, and you could see all the different ways that that you could get involved.

Allen: And for those of you who are listening to the audio feed fighting against myeloma com that’s m y e l o m a m y e l o m a l. Anything else that you want to add?

Glenn: I just want to add that, you know, this this is this is a true, truly personal journey for my family and any help that anyone out there can give. This is not about my family. This is about helping other people. Right? And trust me, the help is needed out there. This this is a a terrible disease. So people like you, Glenn, that are helping us get the message out there. I truly, truly appreciate it. On behalf of myself and the family and everyone who’s helping us with fam, thank you very much.

Allen: My pleasure. And let’s see what you guys do. Alan, thank you so much for being here. Once again, it’s fighting against myeloma. Fighting against myeloma. Com all of us together we can help make a difference in people’s lives. We may not be able to cure the disease, but we can help remove a lot of the stress that goes along with caring for someone who’s ill. Thanks so much for being here. Happy holidays. You know I love you guys. Be well. Take care.