(no subject)

[heidi]

NEW YORK (July 20, 2005) – Shari Kurzrok is two months away from her wedding. The 31-year-old PR executive recently spearheaded the largest-ever national blood drive. Today, she is fighting for her life. Her doctors say she will not live if she doesn’t receive a complete liver transplant within days, and her colleagues in the PR industry are urgently mobilizing to help her.

“I just pray that what Shari has loved to do for a living comes back to help her,” says her fiancée Robby Schnall, 35, a marketing executive at Cole Haan. Their wedding is planned for October 15 at Woodbury Jewish Center in Long Island.

Shari’s sudden illness has taken her family, friends and doctors by surprise. She was admitted to New York University Medical Center last weekend, and within 24 hours she was told she needed a liver transplant to save her life. Her illness is still unexplained.

Kym White, managing director of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, says the news has shaken Shari’s colleagues and friends, as well as the extended communications industry. All are quickly rallying to spread the word through PR and advertising in order to draw attention to Shari’s plight. “Shari is a phenomenal friend and colleague, and it is hard to imagine that someone who only recently led the largest-ever blood donor initiative for the American Red Cross with such energy and enthusiasm, is now in vital need of a liver donation.”

Shari led the 345-city Save-a-Life-Tour, which featured two convoys that traveled across the country to raise awareness about the importance of regular blood donation and to attract new donors including a younger and more ethnically diverse demographic. The campaign collected more than 3.2 million pints of blood and registered more than 38,000 new potential donors. Kamenna Lee, Director, Sales & Marketing for the American Red Cross, said, "Shari poured her heart, soul and life into one of our largest initiatives and truly helped save lives. I urge the public to help Shari the way she helped so many people."

Shari is a native of Great Neck, Long Island, and the daughter of Gloria and Mort Kurzrok. Her father says, “This is a race against time. We want to draw attention not only to Shari’s cause, but also to the urgent, ongoing need that challenge families like us every day.”



Potential donors must be Type A or Type O blood. Anyone wanting to help Shari with a liver transplant referral should call: 877-223-3386 or email: liverforalife@yahoo.com

On a much more mundane note, in the last 24 hours (to borrow a styling from [Bad username or site: praetorianguard), I have dealt with a power failure which caused our cellphones and my sidekick to not work either, visited Jay & Silent Bob's comic book store in LA, enjoyed a Chantino even though it is summertime, had Indian food (and, as usual, called the Nann @ livejournal.com] and tromboneborges, written a few news posts, started work on a fic that will use a story structure similar to The Eight and which will feature Regulus and Draco, looked over SoC to see how much of a change would be required to recast Alexander as Reg, even though there's no way the whole of the fic could be canon compliant because I don't want to get rid of the Hermione-suffers-ramifications-regarding-Rita thing, adored copperbadge's Identifying Marks and xylodemon's The Fall of the Noble & Most Ancient House of Black, been entertained by a number of the ficlets in FA's HBP writing challenge and was unable to call jlh because of said cellphone woes (I'll call you tomorrow, and maybe we can figure something out for early next week before we both leave?).

Also, my husband shut down my computer with tabs going back to skip=700 that I loaded onto my laptop on Sunday afternoon, so I have no idea when I'll be able to read all your HBP reviews. If you want to make sure I read yours, please give me a link - otherwise, I'll try and load all of them again tomorrow afternoon when I may, again, have time.

ETA: Oh! Forgot to plug this riotously funny take on the (not actually funny) Valerie Plame situation, if something similar had happened in the DC Comic-verse. Honestly, whatever your political persuasion, it's funny. Thanks to mrpuzuzu for the rec!

Comments

[cadetsandkings.livejournal.com]

Oh man... if it was a kidney, I'd be lining up to donate. I'm Type O! But unfortunately I need my liver. :*( I hope that she finds a donor. How very sad.

[tobymalfoy.livejournal.com]

Also, my husband shut down my computer with tabs going back to skip=700 that I loaded onto my laptop on Sunday afternoon

If you are using Firefox, you need this extension:
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=47184
Saves all open tabs and resumes your browsing where you left off, even after crashes.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Loved the Lex Luthor link. I have posted in my journal.

My HBP discussion is here, here, here and here. This is sorta related, too.

[boniblithe.livejournal.com]

I'm the proper type to give a lobe, but my liver is by no means fit for anyone else. I'll spread the word, though — all you need is a lobe, and a life is saved.