Helping Hearts, Blog of Anne Sanders

Yesterday I was talking to my mother in law about my husband’s older brother. His birthday is about a week away and he LOVES birthday celebrations. My husband’s older brother has Down Syndrome and he is just one of those people who loves other people, especially women if you know what I mean! He will go hug a woman he’s just met and smile the whole time. As he has gotten older (he’s in his mid-fifties now), however, he’s gotten a little more set in his ways. He doesn’t like going places as much as he used to and he would generally just rather stay at home and watch television or play with the little people toys he has had for years. He’s also gotten where he doesn’t want to work as much. He refused to go to work a couple of days this week and we don’t know why. But my mother in law said something that stuck with me about my brother in law and why she and his father want him to keep working. They’re afraid that if he stops working, he might just stop altogether. As with many older...

I shared last week that in some ways this could be the month of the young, with all the awareness days for children in September. But that’s not all, it’s also the month for Alzheimer’s awareness. I think it’s appropriate because in a way, Alzheimer’s turns people back into children who need special care. I’m not sure if I’ve shared this or not, but my grandmother had Alzheimer’s. She came to live with us so we could care for her. I was still pretty young, but my sisters were in high school and one came to be her companion. She got some money from the government and like a child, the day it came in, they would go for candy. Sneaking through the woods and the apartment complex at the end of our neighborhood, they would walk to the local Tom Thumb and get penny and nickel candy. It was something we did as children whenever we got hold of some money and could get away. She left us and eventually went into a home to care for people with Alzheimer’s. Now I wish I had spent m...

This month people around the nation are walking to support those with diabetes for American Diabetes Month. According to the American Diabetes Association , 25.8 million children and adults in the United States—8.3 percent of population—have diabetes. That’s 18.8 million people who are diagnosed and another 7 million who are not. Worldwide, a s many as 371 million people live with diabetes and more than half of them are unaware that they have diabetes according to the International Diabetes Federation. It's a disease that lurks in the shadows, affecting many before they even know of its existence. So I decided this week to have someone who has lots of experience with diabetes share her story and information about symptoms and how to help those with diabetes. Her name is Carolyn Dailey. 1.        How long have you had diabetes?     I have had it for 37 years.  In September of 1975, I recognized the symptoms a...

Do you have a pink bra? Up until about a month ago, I didn’t, but now I have one covered in flowers which I’m waiting to wear on October 27. You see, the last Saturday of this month is the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk. Thousands of women (and men) will be strapping on a decorated pink bra over their t-shirts, putting on pink wigs, wearing pink tutus. Why? Because they want to stop breast cancer in its tracks. This is my second year of involvement with the walk. Last year I volunteered to count money behind the scenes. I’ll be doing that again this year, but I made myself a bra this year and got on a team that’s fundraising, too. October 27, the day of the walk, also happens to be USA Weekend’s Make a Difference Day . What better way to make a difference than to fundraise to fight breast cancer and walk to raise awareness about it? Here’s some more awareness. Women over 40, like myself, need to get mammograms every year. I didn’t get one last year. My gynecolo...

May is a month of health awareness, from mental health (which I’ll be featuring next week) to arthritis to National Stuttering Awareness Week this week. While we’re fighting the blues for national mental health awareness month, the Arthritis National Research Foundation is asking people to Go Blue for Arthritis Awareness Month and wear blue clothing the whole month to get people to talk about arthritis. You can upload photos of yourself wearing blue at their Facebook page and can win a water bottle or autographed hat from professional golfer Kristy McPherson . I’m choosing today to talk about arthritis because it affects so many people, 50 million according to the Arthritis Foundation .   That’s one in five, making it the nation’s most common cause of disability. There’s an old joke that an elderly lady told her pastor that she sees three men each day—Will Power to get her up in the morning, Arthur Itis with whom she goes from to joint to joint and Ben Gay to...

I write about a lot of volunteering days and another one is coming up December 5—International Volunteer Day.   This one has been sponsored by the United Nations since 1985 and 2011 is the ten year anniversary of the year of the volunteer in 2001.   The UN General Assembly will be discussing volunteerism between now and December 5 and you can listen to and chime in on their discussions here .   There’s also a photo contest to show how volunteering can help countries meet peace and development goals. November 19 was also National Family Volunteering Day. But none of these volunteering days means a thing if they are not celebrated in the spirit of volunteerism, by doing something to help others. So, on the Wednesday before National Family Volunteering Day, my son and I went shopping.   We bought sunscreen, toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, razors, dental floss, candy canes, summer sausage logs and crackers for a group of 800 Army soldiers in Afghanistan. The unit ...