Sunday, June 1, 2008

James in Belguim!

James continues to make news around the world for his bravery, this time in Belgium! Anyone read Dutch? Google Translate shows the title as "Customers collect money for 'olifantenman' behind the cash register".

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very cool...I love when stories like this travel! I was wondering if you all have a blog button/badge that people could add to their blog sidebars?? I'll certainly be posting about your efforts to raise funds for James and I'd love to add a button to my sidebar!

Anonymous said...

hello
My family and I very happily made a donation -- he is a wonderful person. However I am concerned that more people are not simply outraged by this story. We live in the United States and his insurance would not cover this -- this is an outrage!!! How many more like James are out there not getting the necessary care. And what about Safeway??? $10,000 -- in the big picture that is peanuts for them!! Did not one manager/ececutive on the staff think that this should be something that they should have addressed a long time --- thank you do the individual that did!
I applaud everyone for helping James but do not loose sight of the absurdity of the "big picture" in this situation. There are a lot of James 'O Neals in the United States.

Anonymous said...

Hi there,
Yes that is a pretty good translation.
This story has also been published in a Dutch newspaper. My mom from The Netherlands actually forwarded this to me, as she recognized James from the times she visited us in Kirkland. We are now in London and I forwarded this story to my friends here as well.

The Dutch reactions to this story are negative in regards to the US healthcare...they wonder why James can not be helped for free or why a doctor is not donating services? You see Americans help people from all over the world, also with life changing operations, but it seems that some their own fall between the cracks?

I'm so happy someone had the courage and took the time to investigate if something could be done. This is a great example, and it pays of with the generosity of others from all over the world!

Good luck!

Anonymous said...

I just want to say thank you to James.You have inspired me and my children, the second I saw you on t.v. , i felt conected, i knew it was nf before the reporter said nf.I also suffer from NF1 I am a single mom of four all of my children have Nf 1 ages 13 to 3. Except one of my daughters has Nf 1 watson type.Sometimes the surgeries and the pain from the numerous tumors(i have aroun 3,000)can be so much. Thank you for being who you are, I cried as i watched the news. I have fought insurences for me and my kids please keep fighting James.Please go to the uw hospital and ask for Dr. Gruss and Dr Aveleono , they reomoved a very large group of neurofibromas from my son last year, they started around his spine and grew all the way around to his heart and lungs and down his arm.Together they did what I call a miracal surgery as my son has full use of his hand after this surgery.My children and I will pray for you James, please feel free to email me I live in Shelton, Washington god bless you.- Pauline & Kids mrtrmom4@yahoo.com