Small Business Takes Big Steps to Save Leukemia Patient
M. J. Nelson is a 25-year-old Leukemia patient with a renewed hope for survival now that Minnesota based small entreprise, Q & N Retail and Services, has set out to raise the $800,000 needed for stemcell treatment. Founder/CEO of Q & N, Jaime Gehly, has put all business operations on hold to focus on promoting the cleverly designed website, TenThousandPaperCranes. com, that trades $80 donations for a small square of ad space on the home page. Each ad fills a 10x10 pixel area on a grid of 10,000 squares. The website is themed after the true story, "Sadako and the 1000 Paper Cranes" by Eleanor Croell in which a young Japanese girl attempts to fold 1000 origami paper cranes to save her life from Leukemia.
Minneapolis, MN (PRWEB) October 10, 2005
M. J. Nelson is a 25-year-old Leukemia patient with little hope of survival. With a bone marrow transplant scheduled for December, MJ’s chances of living longer than one or two years following the procedure are grim, at best. That's assuming he survives to operation. With a world full of bad news, MJ has somehow found a gem of hope.
There is an alternative to the bone marrow transplant and the history of this controversial procedure details a staggering recovery rate and the chance to lead a normal, healthy life. Unfortunately, stemcell treatment options are not covered by MJ’s insurance and require an early down-payment of $25,000 and an available credit limit of $250,000. This is followed by a final expense bill of anywhere from $800,000 to $1.4 million. This leaves only two months for MJ to raise the bulk of this money before he must undergo the bone marrow transplant. Once that happens he will no longer be eligible for stemcell treatment.
As if delivered by angels, a local Minnesota business owner named Jaime Gehly decides to put all operations on hold to help raise the money for MJ’s medical expenses. Gehly runs an online computer hardware company called Q & N Retail and Services. With the help of Gehly and his business, MJ feels as if he now has a good shot at raising the money for his medical treatment.
“We’ve got a long way to go, but Jaime and his company, Q&N, have put together this ingenious website that will probably be copied by people in these situations for years to come,” states MJ on his newly found motivation to fight his cancer.
The website is themed after the true story of a young Japanese girl who survived the World War II bombing of Hiroshima only to extract Leukemia from the radiation 10 years later. The story was published years ago in a popular book called Sadako and the 1000 Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr. The story tells of a 12-year-old girl attempting to restore her health by folding 1000 origami paper cranes after hearing an ancient myth proclaiming this to be the cure-all for all sickness. TenThousandPaperCranes. com is Jaime Gehly’s modern day version of the tale.
“The website has a grid of 10,000 small squares. Inside each square is a little drawing of a paper crane. For every $80 donation we receive, that person gets to take down one of the cranes and replace it with their own advertisement and website link. If we sell all 10,000 paper cranes, we will have the $800,000 for MJ,” explains Gehly.
Gehly also admits that the idea for the website was not entirely of his own design. He claims to have gotten the idea off of a site called MillionDollarHomePage. com, “I can’t take credit for the idea. A guy named Alex Tew from the UK thought up the idea to raise money for college. I thought it was so clever that I purchased $200 worth of ad space for Q & N. He launched his site about 2 months ago and already has earned over $300,000.”
While Gehly’s version has slight similarities to the predecessors website, the additional themed reference towards Coerr’s novel and a far more serious and urgent objective lend me to anticipate an even greater public response to this fund-raising venture. Online statistics show that the majority of those who have purchased advertising space on Alex Tew’s www. MillionDollarHomePage. com have more than doubled their website traffic since placing their ad. If that kind of return can be expected from www. TenThousandPaperCranes. com then I doubt there will be any problem raising the funds. In addition, the purchased ad space will remain online for another five years once placed on the site.
With the help of Q & N Retail and Service, M. J. Nelson seems to be in good hands, for the time being. Although with the deadline fast approaching and MJ’s health rapidly declining, the ‘time being’ could easily bring this one down-to-the-wire. It’s going to take a lot of help and some serious media exposure, but mix that with a solid game-plan and a bit of luck and maybe MJ will end up scratching that bone marrow transplant off his calendar, after all.
To donate money to the M. J. Nelson Leukemia Foundation and receive your own ad space visit www. TenThousandPaperCranes. com.
For updates via Q & N Retail and Services visit www. Qnretail. com
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