GOOD news should always be celebrated in style and, after recently being cleared from Hodgkin’s lymphoma, 25-year-old Andrew Penington’s “remission party” gave celebrating a whole new meaning.
Deciding to throw a party to celebrate his remission with his family and friends, Andrew was also keen to create awareness of blood cancer and its impact on those diagnosed.
The idea of a “remission party” was born and expanded to become a fundraiser for the Leukaemia Foundation, who Andrew says, provided him with much needed support throughout his journey.
“I want to thank the people who have helped me most. The reason I made it a fundraiser was because the Foundation has helped me out with so much that I want to be able to take the opportunity to raise as much money as possible in return,” said Andrew.
The cocktail party began without Andrew. Instead a short video of his experiences with blood cancer was played to welcome his supportive family and friends. What followed was a ‘rockstar’ entrance by Andrew who made a very moving speech thanking the many who have helped him through his journey.
“Cancer is unforgiving; it just takes and takes. It takes everything from you so quickly until you are left wondering where it all went. The funny thing though, is that cancer also strips away all the small stuff… and provides you that level of simplicity in your life to concentrate on the fundamentals. The things which are important,” said Andrew.
Providing some much needed closure on his blood cancer journey, the ‘remission party’ also presented an opportunity for Andrew, a project engineer, to embrace a project of a different kind. Andrew sought generous donations of drinks, raffle prizes and auction items which resulted in nearly $10,000 being raised for the Leuakaemia Foundation.
Really proud of his achievements including his remission from cancer, Andrew says he was absolutely amazed by the goodwill and generosity of his community and attributes a positive mental attitude to giving him the strength to accept the challenges he has faced.
“Tonight, let’s forget about yesterday, let’s forget about tomorrow. Tonight, we are present, we are in this moment. Tonight we are a band of brothers. Tonight we can all celebrate that we, together, have beaten cancer,” Andrew said.
Source: Leukaemia Foundation
Ryan Fritz
Ryan Fritz started The Advocate in 2014 to provide not-for-profits and charities another media platform to tell their worthwhile hard news stories and opinion pieces effortlessly. In 2020, Ryan formed a team of volunteer journalists to help spread even more high-quality stories from the third sector. He also has over 10 years experience as a media and communications professional for not-for-profits and charities and currently works at Redkite, a childhood cancer charity.
