Helping Hearts, Blog of Anne Sanders

I have written before about what it was like when my son had a malignant skin cancer at the age of five. Thankfully, God saved him for another purpose in life, but September is a month to think about children of all ages because it’s the month for childhood cancer, infant mortality, newborn screening, and childhood obesity awareness. I remember when he was just born and a nurse came into our room and took his foot and pierced it. She squeezed out his blood and his cries made me twinge in horror. What could be so important that the nurse had to do that to him? I found out later that pinprick could have made the difference in his life if he had one of the diseases that they test for at newborn screening. These tests are for diseases you don’t notice when you see a newborn baby, but they can prevent healthy development and lifelong impairment according to KidsHealth . There are no federal standards for this but most states screen for about 30 diseases. A friend of mine just ha...

My life is wonderful. I have a loving husband, a growing child, and a variety of activities taking care of them, helping others, and stretching my mind and abilities. Most importantly, I love God and know He loves me. This was not always the case. When I was in my twenties, I had a hard time finding a good job (the economic recession of that day was in effect), no boyfriend, and I struggled to make ends meet and enjoy my life. After being thrown out of my parent’s house, I moved from place to place and job to job (neither by choice) for over a year. On top of that, I had been in a car accident and had recurring pain with which I dealt. At one point, I was so depressed with the way my life was going, that I considered taking my life. What brought me back from the brink of such an action was that I felt some connection to my nephew (who was a young boy at the time), and I knew that everyone in my family would be negatively affected by my act. The memory of his sweet face and the ...

It’s a crazy idea, starting a running group for homeless people, but that’s how Back On My Feet (BoMF) began, with one runner thinking that helping nine men add a regular discipline to their lives might help them get them back on track. Back on My Feet “Residential Members” (meaning homeless persons) are getting jobs and housing and improving their outlook on life, too. Seventy-eight percent are sure they’ll get a job they like and 94 percent are hopeful about the future while almost 900 have gotten jobs and over 600 have found a home. It starts with running. Attendance, mileage and attitude are tracked on every run. After 30 days in the program, each Residential Member who maintains 90% attendance at the morning runs moves to Back on My Feet’s “Next Steps” phase. In this phase, BoMF staff work with Residential Members “to build a road map toward self-sufficiency which includes financial literacy and skill-building classes with for-profit and nonprofit partners.” After t...

Next Sunday is Father’s Day and the week leading up to it is Men’s Health Week as part of Men’s Health Month in June. I shared with you last week how my husband reminded me about the spirit of charity when I forgot it. This month, we need to remind the men in our life how important it is to take care of themselves. For years I played in a tennis league and tried to encourage my husband to do something regularly for exercise. But he wouldn’t. It wasn’t until someone he knew who was around his age died of a heart attack that he finally realized how important it was to take care of himself. He began doing martial arts three times a week. Sometimes men need a wake up call like that but they shouldn’t have to wait for someone to die to start taking care of themselves. The Men’s Health Network (MHN) in its Drive for Five , is highlighting information on five important health risks for men--high cholesterol, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high prostate-specific antigen ...

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...

I know. I know. I was supposed to write about Volunteer Vacations today like I promised.   I will get to it next month, but I was inspired on Monday to write about something else.   That’s when I was watching Good Morning America and heard the plea from Sam Champion for people to join the Be the Match Registry.   It struck me because I had just joined and gotten my membership card in the mail a couple of weeks ago.   He was asking because Robin Roberts, one of the show’s anchors, has contracted MDS, short for myelodysplastic syndrome, a rare blood disorder that affects the bone marrow.   Roberts is a breast cancer survivor.   I admire her for all she’s been through and she is one of the lucky 30 percent that have a sibling with an appropriate match for bone marrow.   But 70 percent of the time, a sibling’s marrow does not match.   That means thousands of patients with leukemia, lymphoma, sickle cell and other life-threatening dis...

The whole month of June is Men’s Health Month so I’m starting the month off talking about men which is a subject most women love.  Like Women’s Health Week and Mother’s Day, Men’s Health Week precedes Father’s Day going from June 11th to 17th and International Men’s Health Week overlaps that a bit going from June 13th to 19 th this year.    What do all these dates mean?  That people around the world know that men need to think more often about their health.  For Women’s Health week and Mental Health Month, I interviewed a women and mental health advocate.  Since I don’t know a men’s health advocate, I decided to take some tips from the well-known and trusted Dr. Mehmet Oz.  He didn’t have a shorter list so here are his top 25 tips for men’s health. 1.  Find a way to laugh, which eases stress, promotes social bonding and lowers blood pressure 2.  Eat breakfast and have some fiber in it, too 3.  Get s even hours of slee...

As of yesterday I have been volunteering for the American Cancer Society (ACS) for one year.   It has been a great experience.   The people I volunteer for are so appreciative of my work.   I’ve had the chance to brush up on my clerical skills.   I enjoy getting out of the house, meeting new people and being involved in an organization that’s making a difference in the world.   The kicker is that because I have volunteered more than 40 hours in the past year (other studies say 100 hours), I also am in better health than if I hadn’t volunteered. You read that right, volunteering more than 40 hours a year makes you healthier. At least that’s true according to the Corporation for National and Community Service which reviewed two decades of research on the benefits of volunteering.   Here are a few of the results: ·          Volunteering enhances a person's social networks to buffer stress and reduce disease ...

In 2011, I made a resolution to exercise more, at least 2-3 times a week. It’s a resolution that I’ve kept throughout the year unless I was sick. It’s a popular resolution because we all know how good exercise is for us and many of us would like to lose a few pounds, too. Two things helped me keep this resolution more than anything else. First, I made a friend who was my exercise buddy on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We ran/walked together using the Galloway method to prevent injury and increase running speed. My exercise partner is the best and I highly recommend getting one. Now that it’s too cold for us to run outside, we meet and work out together at a gym on those two days that we have set aside for our health. Secondly, I began using a website dedicated to helping others. You might ask how this would help me keep up my workouts. That’s a good question. The site is Plus 3 Network . It’s a place to log your exercise time and sponsors give money to a charity of your choice when yo...

This month is a phenomenon in men’s health known as Movember . It’s all about sporting a Mo (mustache) and growing it to great lengths while you shun shaving for the month. At the end of the month, you can show your Mo at a Mo Party. In the meantime, you can share why you are growing your facial hair and why else? To support men’s health.   The Movember site has tons of information about men’s health, prostate cancer and testicular cancer as well as health resources for men. While growing your Mo, you can also raise money to support research on cancers that affect men such as prostate cancer.   The funds go to programs run by Movember and its partners, the Prostate Cancer Foundation and LIVE STRONG , the Lance Armstrong Foundation. You can create an online page to which people can contribute for your Mo growth. Movember offers prizes for the teams with the best Mo page, the team and individual that raises the most money and also has random prizes for those that rais...