DONATE $25 and receive your copy today (shipping not included). Proceeds of Everest Rocks purchased the first mammography and internal radiation machines for the country of Nepal.

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“A few days before the Love Hope Strength trip to Mt. Fuji* was supposed to
begin, I got a call from Shannon Foley, the director of the foundation,
inviting me to join. I thought it would be an amazing opportunity to give
back to an incredible organization, but had no clue it would be as
emotional of a trip as it was. I had a great time getting to know these
amazing cancer survivors, families of cancer survivors, and the other
musicians on the trip – Mike Peters of the Alarm and Glenn Tilbrook of
Squeeze. We had a great time climbing Mt. Fuji, and even though my legs hurt
for days afterward, it was one of the most unbelievable experiences of my
life. I am so excited to stay involved with this organization and continue
to help them in the fight against cancer. Check out what they’re all about
here: http://www.lovehopestrength.org/ and then check out the slideshow I
put together of pictures from the trip. The song is from my new album GLOW
(out Tuesday, 10/5) and it’s called “Home”. Hope you enjoy!”

-Donavon, September 2010

*Mt Fuji Rocks was the Love Hope Strength’s latest musical journey, to the Japan’s Mount Fuji and “Land of the Rising Sun” featuring performances by team members Donavon Frankenreiter, Mike Peters, Glenn Tilbrook, Matt Grundy and Brien McVernon. 30 musicians, cancer survivors and supporters spent a year raising funds for Love Hope Strength culminating in a symbolic pilgrimage to the highest mountain (3,776 m, 12,388 ft) in Japan timed around the “Fire Festival”, the official closing ceremony of the hiking season. They did so in order to bring love, hope and strength to the world.

Funds raised from Mt Fuji Rocks are being used to support global cancer care and expand the global bone marrow testing campaign.  Cancer is now the leading global killer and more and more, patients are finding bone marrow transplants to be their only hope at surviving numerous blood cancers including, Leukemia, Lymphoma, Multipe Myeloma and other diseases, such as, Sickle cell and Aplastic anemia. As our world becomes more diverse, so is the need for a multi-cultural database of willing bone marrow donors. By conducting saliva-based bone marrow drives, we are increasing the odds of survival for thousands of patients around the globe. Learn more about becoming a marrow donor.

Recovering from lymphoma in 1996 and then being diagnosed with leukemia in 2005, he started the Love Hope Strength Foundation with Texas businessman and fellow cancer survivor James Chippendale. Peters and a caravan of his musician mates have raised money and awareness to fight cancer while climbing some of the world’s premier peaks. Scaling Mt. Everest and Mt. Kilimanjaro, he recently made his way up Mt. Fuji. Squeeze’s Glenn Tilbrook joined him on the Fuji trek and the two looked tan and rested a day after descending.

“Mt. Fuji was great,” Peters said. “Most of the summits we’ve done, getting there was the experience. Whereas this was getting there, then staying to experience the sunrise. As well as the joy of bagging a high peak, it was also to stay and experience a communal event. And the sun coming up–it was like New Years’ Eve.”

Before tackling the Great Outdoors, Peters and company set their sights on a more accessible landmark. In 2007, Love Hope Strength kicked off with a climb up the stairs of the Empire State Building.

“It wasn’t as tough as I thought it was gonna be. It took about an hour 50 minutes. Slim Jim Phantom [of the Stray Cats] was the first to the top. I don’t know what he does, or what his training regime is,” he said with a laugh. “You know, he smokes. He plays drums standing up which probably keeps him fit. The Empire State Building, that was our first event. It was typical Love Hope Strength in the way it happened, in the middle of ridiculous circumstances. It was the worst Northeaster storm to hit New York in a hundred years. They closed the airports; half the people [we were] expecting couldn’t make it.

“But, it was fantastic. We had Slim Jim, Dave Wakeling from The English Beat and Billy Duffy from The Cult. It was a great start.”

Since its inception, Love Hope Strength has gone global fighting cancer. The foundation purchased the first ever mammography machine for Nepal, funded the first children’s cancer center in Tanzania and helped open the new wing of a cancer center in Wales. Peters reflected on the genesis of it all.

“It started like all things do–with something dramatic,” he said. ” I was diagnosed with leukemia, and when I was going through all the treatments, I was still playing gigs in between chemotherapy. I got invited to play Joey Ramones’s memorial. He died of lymphoma, was a fan of The Alarm and used to come to my gigs. So it was even more important to me to go and support this guy who had lost his life.

“I wanted to play that gig, and go to Texas, and I couldn’t have insurance. So I found a guy, James Chippendale, who helped me while I was in America. I paid him a return compliment and he came to stay with me in Wales. We decided to start a charity, tell people our story, share the good news that we’d both lived through cancer, that we’re living in a modern era where people can overcome it if they act quickly and responsibly, that you could fight back.”

Tilbrook, who has joined past fundraising treks, recalls his reaction when Peters first proposed the idea to him. “Mike called up with this absolutely mad idea of going to Everest base camp,” he said. “I really like the idea of doing something that’s out of kilter with rock ‘n’ roll. Rock ‘n’ roll is about decadence and excess. It’s actually counterintuitive to go climbing, but it’s great; it’s inspirational. It’s also a metaphor for what Mike and everybody’s been through in their lives. And so that was me on board.”

After all this mountaineering, Peters says that the next excursion might be somewhat more pedestrian. “We’re planning some not-so-high adventures next year. As it’s getting bigger, more people want to come on the international treks. So we’re trying to broaden the horizon a bit. We thought of doing something in Hawaii. That’s more of a coastal walk–but it could be a great one.

“And then Siberia? It could be cold.”

Frank Spignese / Special to The Daily Yomiuri

ACL Music Festival is a three-day, eight stage event with 130 bands and much more.The festival will feature a special area in the grounds to showcase select orgainizations – ACL Cares. Be sure to stop by the Love Hope Strength booth and GET ON THE LIST!!! For complete ACL Music Festival details and tickets click here.

]]> http://www.lovehopestrength.org/site/love-hope-strength-at-acl/feed/ 0 http://www.lovehopestrength.org/site/rocking-the-world/ http://www.lovehopestrength.org/site/rocking-the-world/#comments Tue, 14 Sep 2010 14:16:04 +0000 shannon http://www.lovehopestrength.org/site/?p=4586 The Love Hope Strength Foundation mixes music with adventure to improve cancer care all over the world – Kelly Carpenter couldn’t see more than two feet in front of her. A dense fog had rolled into the camp early that morning, adding a dangerous element to a trek that was already considered the crux of a Kilimanjaro summit attempt. If she and her team safely reached their final campsite, at the crater just below the summit, they’d be set for a short easy hike to the top the next morning. If they didn’t, well, Kelly didn’t want to think about that.

Nor did she want to think about what would happen if she lost sight of the climber in front of her. She scurried to stay close, tired from the six hours of hiking, and laboring to breathe normally at 18,000 feet.

At that point, the videographer approached her. “Why are you here, why are you doing this?” he asked, pointing the camera in her face. “Because I can,” she said.

Kelly meant it literally. Diagnosed with colon cancer at age 28, she knew what it felt like to not be able to complete even ordinary tasks, let alone summit the highest peak in Africa. She’d spent the last six months undergoing two rounds of aggressive chemotherapy, fighting the disease that took her mother’s life in 2003.

Summiting Kilimanjaro had become a symbol of Kelly’s battle, a celebration of her life, and a way for her to give back by raising money so others could have the same quality of cancer care that had saved her life. The trek was a fundraiser for the rock n’ roll cancer charity, the Love Hope Strength Foundation. Two other cancer survivors, along with 15 people whose lives had been touched by cancer and seven musicians, made it to the summit with Kelly the next day.

Participants had paid their own airfare, covered $5,000 in ground costs, and raised a minimum of $9,000 for cancer care on top of that. The price was high, but the reward for Kelly’s time, money, and effort was the summit experience, with a private concert atop Kilimanjaro immediately following. The musicians included Robin Wilson from the Gin Blossoms and Slim Jim Phantom from The Stray Cats. They’d also raised the required $14,000 to cover their expenses and help build a children’s cancer care center in Tanzania.

The idea of bringing musicians and “cancer thrivers” together for peak bagging and private, mountain-top concerts is the brainchild of American James Chippendale, a leukemia survivor, and two-time cancer survivor Mike Peters, who’s also the lead singer and songwriter of the Welsh rock band, The Alarm. During his cancer recovery, Peters had a view of 3,560-foot Mount Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales, and staring at it from his bed, Peters promised himself that if he lived, he would climb it. Because he could. And, he would bring along the hospital staff that had saved him in appreciation of their care and expertise.

In 2007, Peters mentioned his idea to Chippendale, who suggested that if Peters really wanted to show the world what cancer survivors could do, he’d tackle Everest and then celebrate with a rock concert. The Love Hope Strength Foundation was born.

LHSF held its first climb and concert combo on a peak just beyond Everest Base Camp that same year. It was, at the time, the highest rock concert ever performed, earning a Guinness record to prove it. Then they headed down to Katmandu and held a free concert for 15,000 locals, opening up their celebration to the community. The “Everest Rocks” documentary is now airing on MTV’s High Def Channel, Palladia.

The money raised by that concert paid for the first mammography machine in Nepal, as well as the first internal radiation machine – a nucletron brachytherapy afterloader. Chippendale and Peters agreed early on that they didn’t want to use money raised by LHSF to fund cancer research. They contend that the technology to save lives exists right now, it’s just not available everywhere. LHSF’s mission is to build cancer centers and

deliver medical equipment and supplies to countries, towns, and cities where it’s lacking.

In the U.S., LHSF also utilizes existing cancer care technology in saving lives. The nonprofit focuses on building the bone marrow donor list by soliciting concert-goers at music festivals such as Lollapalooza nationwide, and at venues like Red Rocks Amphitheater in their home state of Colorado. Last year, LHSF had a presence at 101 shows, adding 4,000 donors to the bone marrow database.

Meanwhile, their international musical pilgrimages now include all seven continents and the top of the Empire State Building, the Inca ruins in Machu Picchu, Colorado’s Pikes Peak, Philadelphia Art Museum’s “Rocky Steps,” Mount Fuji, and, penned in for 2011, Siberia.

A Love Hope Strength Foundation concert in Kathmandu, Nepal

Executive Director Shannon Foley explains the thought behind the peak-bagging fundraisers, drawing on her own personal experience. Her brother is a cancer survivor, and her sister did the Livestrong Challenge as a result. “I wanted to do something, too, but I don’t like walk-a-thons, I’m not a cyclist, and I don’t do black tie dinners. When I found out about Love Hope Strength, something finally resonated with me – music and mountains. We were doing fundraisers that no one else did.”

Shannon also points out that organizations like the Susan G. Komen Foundation didn’t exist outside the United States when LHSF first started, creating a discrepancy between the United States and the rest of the world with regards to cancer care and awareness. “They weren’t wearing Livestrong bracelets in Katmandu,” she says.

LHSF strives to bridge that gap between cancer awareness in the U.S. and in other countries, from Peru to Wales to Tanzania. This means that for LHSF, it’s not about showing up with folks who’ve raised funds, going on a trek, holding a concert, and leaving. “We want to leave a mark,” Shannon says. “When we left Nepal, people were talking about cancer in a place where they don’t talk about it.” Though 90 percent of the organization’s work, including planning its international projects, is based in the United States, they hope to be doing bone marrow drives on all seven continents within the next five years.

LHSF’s ability to improve cancer care conditions and raise awareness both inside and outside the U.S. couldn’t have come at a better time. This year, cancer overtook heart disease as the leading cause of death. Worldwide, cancer causes more deaths than AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined. In most of the developing world, cancer is viewed as a death sentence. “But we’ve come so much further than that,” Shannon says. “Right now, we have the medical means to save tens of thousands of people all over the world. And we’re doing it – one concert, one cancer care center at a time.”

1) Get out and live your life to the fullest! As you know, the idea of “being present in the moment” was one of Roxane’s most cherished ideals. Don’t wait for tomorrow to live your dreams.

2) Sign up to be an organ donor. Roxane was, and her gift will help an incredible 80 people who are awaiting some form of transplant. Honor all of us by matching her generosity.

3) Make a gift to Love Hope Strength in lieu of sending flowers or some other token. This charity is near and dear to our hearts, because it’s doing incredible work in finding bone-marrow donors, providing cancer screening in poor communities, and spreading the word about new types of treatment. And Love Hope Strength does its outreach through rock ‘n roll events that Roxane would’ve loved.

Please join our family in supporting this blessed work with a generous donation.

And again, many thanks for your love, your hope, and your strength.

Click here for tour dates, tickets and venue locations. Don’t miss this opportunity to see The Alarm and Love Hope Strength’s own, Mike Peters in concert this September. Be sure to stop by and GET ON THE LIST!!!

For complete details, daily tour blogs, photos and other information about The Alarm including the new release of their latest album, Direct Action click here.

For more information on Love Hope Strength, click here.

To view this blurb on antimusic.com click here!