World AIDS Marathoner off to Kenya at last

[Guest guest]

M. Brodsky Foundation 1247 Mara Court Atlantic Beach, NY 11509

Contact: R. Brodsky Phone: (516)770-7724 E-mail: richardbpc@...

Contact: Tobias Okech E-mail: tobias_okech@...

World AIDS Marathoner off to Kenya at last

On Monday evening, November 27th, my wife Jodi and I, the HIV-guy with brain cancer, are headed to Africa. We had hoped that our plea to show how HIV-positive people could lead a healthy productive life would be noticed more by society. It’s all about getting the AIDS medicine to AIDS sufferers all around the world so the number of deaths from AIDS would be substantially reduced. But do people really care? I’ve witnessed people discarding my letters as if the very paper it was written on could infect the reader. Would these same people just wish that the pothole in the street got repaired before funding AIDS projects? Hmmm… life of a tire, life of a human being, which is more important?!

It gets worse. The M. Brodsky Foundation boasts how it will feed 500 orphans and 500 runners, provide 800 T-shirts, stage a concert, marathon, half-marathon, 5K fun walk, and provide a room for 500 runners. All at a price of $3 per runner, if you live in Kenya.

Talk about being optimistic and wanting to change things that need to be changed. This may not be the year in which the struggling and / or affluent family wakes up and says, ‘Hey, look at me I’m awakening in a comfortable bed and I have a roof over my head, I have food in my fridge, and all I need to do today is to focus on which presents to buy for the holidays. But what would your life be like if your bed suddenly crashed through the floor and you awoke in sub-Saharan Africa. Surely you could not count on you fingers and toes the number of people you knew who had died from AIDS. How many of their orphaned children comprised the 14,000,000 orphans who currently reside in sub-Saharan Africa? What have these children done wrong to deserve their fate? Orphaned and further stigmatized because their parent(s) died from AIDS, ask yourself the question, ‘What can I do to help?’

You can help AIDS orphans and people whose lives have been affected by AIDS by writing a check to the M. Brodsky Foundation or making your donation online via either website, www.richardmbrodsky.org or www.worldaidsmarathon.com. My foundation is built around the fact that if I can run marathons with HIV and brain cancer, then even your friends and relatives who are afflicted with life-threatening illnesses can improve the quality of their lives as well. Overseas, in resource-poor countries it is not that easy. Clean drinking water is not readily available while poverty is rampant. An inadequate food supply, an inaccessible supply of life saving medicine coupled with the lack of medical care will make it that much more difficult for people in poverty-stricken countries to survive.

On World AIDS Day, December 1, the M. Brodsky Foundation, in conjunction with the Kisumu AIDS Marathon Organization will co-sponsor a marathon, half marathon and 5K fun walk. Free HIV testing and counseling, thanks to KEMRI/CDC, will also be provided along the marathon and half marathon routes. The evening before we will be providing a free meal for 500 orphans and 500 runners. The day after the marathon we have rented the Jomo Kenyatta Sports Stadium for a day of music and AIDS related skits. These events and raising money for other AIDS and cancer charities can only continue to happen with your generous support.

[Guest guest]

M. Brodsky Foundation 1247 Mara Court Atlantic Beach, NY 11509

Contact: R. Brodsky Phone: (516)770-7724 E-mail: richardbpc@...

Contact: Tobias Okech E-mail: tobias_okech@...

World AIDS Marathoner off to Kenya at last

On Monday evening, November 27th, my wife Jodi and I, the HIV-guy with brain cancer, are headed to Africa. We had hoped that our plea to show how HIV-positive people could lead a healthy productive life would be noticed more by society. It’s all about getting the AIDS medicine to AIDS sufferers all around the world so the number of deaths from AIDS would be substantially reduced. But do people really care? I’ve witnessed people discarding my letters as if the very paper it was written on could infect the reader. Would these same people just wish that the pothole in the street got repaired before funding AIDS projects? Hmmm… life of a tire, life of a human being, which is more important?!

It gets worse. The M. Brodsky Foundation boasts how it will feed 500 orphans and 500 runners, provide 800 T-shirts, stage a concert, marathon, half-marathon, 5K fun walk, and provide a room for 500 runners. All at a price of $3 per runner, if you live in Kenya.

Talk about being optimistic and wanting to change things that need to be changed. This may not be the year in which the struggling and / or affluent family wakes up and says, ‘Hey, look at me I’m awakening in a comfortable bed and I have a roof over my head, I have food in my fridge, and all I need to do today is to focus on which presents to buy for the holidays. But what would your life be like if your bed suddenly crashed through the floor and you awoke in sub-Saharan Africa. Surely you could not count on you fingers and toes the number of people you knew who had died from AIDS. How many of their orphaned children comprised the 14,000,000 orphans who currently reside in sub-Saharan Africa? What have these children done wrong to deserve their fate? Orphaned and further stigmatized because their parent(s) died from AIDS, ask yourself the question, ‘What can I do to help?’

You can help AIDS orphans and people whose lives have been affected by AIDS by writing a check to the M. Brodsky Foundation or making your donation online via either website, www.richardmbrodsky.org or www.worldaidsmarathon.com. My foundation is built around the fact that if I can run marathons with HIV and brain cancer, then even your friends and relatives who are afflicted with life-threatening illnesses can improve the quality of their lives as well. Overseas, in resource-poor countries it is not that easy. Clean drinking water is not readily available while poverty is rampant. An inadequate food supply, an inaccessible supply of life saving medicine coupled with the lack of medical care will make it that much more difficult for people in poverty-stricken countries to survive.

On World AIDS Day, December 1, the M. Brodsky Foundation, in conjunction with the Kisumu AIDS Marathon Organization will co-sponsor a marathon, half marathon and 5K fun walk. Free HIV testing and counseling, thanks to KEMRI/CDC, will also be provided along the marathon and half marathon routes. The evening before we will be providing a free meal for 500 orphans and 500 runners. The day after the marathon we have rented the Jomo Kenyatta Sports Stadium for a day of music and AIDS related skits. These events and raising money for other AIDS and cancer charities can only continue to happen with your generous support.