A note to all [Edited to include people I've missed out]

Hi everyone,

Thank you for always keeping Charmaine in your thoughts and prayers.

There have really been lots of kind souls around and Cynthia is really touched by everyone's kind gestures and words. No amount of words is enough to express our gratitude to all who care.

There are certain issues which I have to bring to everyone’s attention as this weblog gets more and more popular each day.

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On the purpose of this blog…

Those of you who have been following this weblog since the day it was set up would have known that I had started this blog with the sole intention for people who care to leave their words of encouragement. It is also a platform for anyone who wishes to share their valuable past experiences, especially those who have had gone through a similar ordeal.

I was hoping that Cynthia and Charmaine would be encouraged by all the stories and well wishes.

Soon after, this weblog was and is still used as an avenue for the people who know us to be updated on Charmaine’s fight with this dreaded cancer.

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On fundraising…

“In order for us to help Charmaine fight this cancer battle, we require our friends and people who know us to help raise funds…”

As stated in my introduction, we were seeking help from our first degree of contacts.

At that time, I included my personal email address for people to contact me if they could help in any way. Due to good response from many people expressing their wish to help and offers of donation, we decided to add paypal and open a separate POSB savings account for Charmaine after consulting Cynthia and her family.

Since the weblog’s url has been widely circulated on the internet realm, we have countless big hearted strangers coming in to express their wish to donate too. We also experience some skeptics who deemed this as a fraud.

Currently, we are in the process of making our fundraising transparent since it concerns the donation of people who don’t know us personally. We have been collating a list of donors to verify everyone's fundings. Do rest assure that we would have a proper track record up and running soon.

I notice some bank transfer via ATM and have no records of their source. To these people, kindly email me to let me know who you are and the date you have made the transfer.

To facilitate our process of collating and matching of names, do drop us an email with your name after you have made a fund transfer to the POSB account.

For those who have offered to send cheques, I would let Cynthia know how she would like it to be done and get back to you again.

In the meantime, I’m also in the process of acquiring information on whether this fundraising is approved by authorities in Singapore since it concerns third parties’ contribution.

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On getting a ballpark figure for the medical expenses from KK…

I understand that a few of you have expressed interest in conducting a donation drive in your own companies and a ballpark figure would most certainly be helpful in promoting your cause.

Cynthia has been trying her best to obtain this and from what I last heard from her on 3rd March, she was directed to departments after departments with no results. Please be patient as Cynthia is really doing her best.

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On emails and comments…

I’m managing this blog during my free time. I have a full time job, tuition commitments and wedding preparation to tend to.

I am not able to cope with replying to the overwhelming emails and hence a very good friend of mine, Charlene/pixie has offered her assistance in replying emails on my behalf. Please do not be surprised if you don't see a sign off from me. Do rest assured that I've read every email and would also reply personally each time I have the chance. Any emails with regards to Cynthia would be forwarded to Cynthia herself together with a summarised sms update too.

Charlene/pixie has a full time job which requires occasional trips overseas. She has certainly been doing a good job at handling all the replies and I really have to thank her for all the help she has rendered.

Please do not hesitate to drop us an email should you need to clarify on certain issues but do bear with us if we are unable to reply promptly.

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On the new comments setting…

The free comment setting was enabled at the beginning for people to leave their words of encouragement. I hope that one day when Charmaine manages to win the cancer battle and has grown up into a pretty lady, she would have something to read. I also wanted to dedicate something which Cynthia would definitely hold dear to her heart.

In view of the recent backlash, I have changed the comment setting to open ID. I apologise if I have prevented any anonymous well-wishers from posting and I hope you would continue posting by using an open ID.

Advice from many people was that deleting comments is equivalent to admitting of guilt in the blogosphere. As much as I want to make this blog clean, I have decided not to delete but to leave all the bad comments intact for now.

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On supporting the cause…

There is a public group created in the name of “Our Feisty Princess Charmaine Lim” in Facebook. You are welcome to join us any time. =)

I have been getting many requests from strangers from the group to add me as friend on Facebook. I hope you would understand that I have to reject your requests as I would only add people I know as a direct contact of a friend, know you by name somehow on the internet realm or whom I have met at the hospital.

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A word of thanks to everyone in my company

To the 3 directors,
Thank you very much for approving my donation drive in the company and for all the concern that you have shown. I really appreciate all that you have done, from the approval, to the understanding of my situation, to my frequent leaves and time offs, to not being able to fulfill my new responsibilities fully, to sharing your stories and lending a listening ear to me.

To all the colleagues working with me directly,
Thank you for:
1) helping me ease my workload during these 2 weeks (this is addressed to my department)
2) approving my leaves and time offs and bearing with me for not being able to pass you the SOW on time (this is addressed to my superior)
3) understanding my situation
4) offering words of encouragement
5) making me laugh
6) tolerating the frequent beeps and rings from my hp
7) bearing with my scatterbrains each time I come back to the office being so blur

To all the colleagues who made a contribution,
Thank you for your kind thoughts and gesture. Please please please do not apologise for not being able to contribute much or that it’s just a small token. I’m already thankful beyond words for your sincerity.

To V******e,
Thank you for helping me to collect the funds and recording them in an excel spreadsheet.

To colleagues who have rendered help to me in some form or another,
A BIG THANK YOU TO YOU! I hope I haven't missed out anyone.

Since this is a public blog… a very public one, I don’t feel comfortable revealing the name of our company. However, I know that many of you would be reading this and would know who you are. =)

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And finally thanx to…

On behalf of Cynthia, I thank all of you for your sincerity in helping this family.

Thank you A**** for helping with the technical aspects of managing this blog (eg. including a world map, making a badge/banner with Charmaine's face on it, making the gmail a/c theme so sweet and cheerful to brighten up our day) with your superb IT skills. Even though you do not know Cynthia and me personally, you help with no intention of being known. I would have been ungrateful if I do not even make a special mention of you with your name blotted out.

Thank you P*****n for meeting up with me just now to pass a Dora mechandise funpack from Nickelodeon for Charmaine. Even though we do not know each other personally probably only by our username in LD, you have kindly offered to donate a Dora fun pack to put a smile on Charmaine's face. My family members showed such great interest in the goodies inside that my sis even lay out them nicely to take a photo of them.

Thank you everyone for your help rendered. Be it leaving a mark here, making a small donation, offering suggestions, sharing your personal stories and clicking on the nuffnang ads which always pull a Houdini on us, all of you have certainly helped Charmaine to fight round one of the war with cancer.

May God bless all of you!

With warmest regards,
Jolene


P/S: Due to some feedback, I'll enable the free comments settings again and will monitor the situation to see if I should leave the setting as it is.