What would you do to save a life? Introducing: Love, Hope, Strength. It is a charity hitting Nashville by storm thanks to dedicated volunteers such as Rob Rushing and his team of ‘Rock Stars’.
This Tuesday, they are launching the Nashville division of Love, Hope, Strength, at Mercy Lounge. The concert is free and open to the public. The night will include seven bands and DJ Fat Andy. The show starts at 7:30 pm.
Bands include anywhere from Alt Country to Pop Rock to Ska to well, you have to see it to believe it. Featured bands are Tommy Ache and The Terrible Mistakes, Auggie Stardust and The Rebound Girlfriends, Chip Greene, Stephen Simmons, Tommy Womack and The Rush To Judgment, Daniel Walker and The Beat Officers.
To make the event even better, Amber LMT will be onsite with her massage chair. She is offering a free massage to anyone who donates or gets on the National Bone Marrow donor list. A free massage and the opportunity to help save lives along with great music are all at Mercy Lounge.
Love, Hope, Strength Foundation is an international music-centric cancer charity dedicated to providing support for cancer centers and inspiration to those affected throughout the world.
Mike Peters of the rock band The Alarm created Love, Hope, Strength in 2007. He is a two-time cancer survivor and survived thanks to Western medicine. Originally created to bring cancer treatment to people not privy to the same treatments as Americans, Love, Hope, Strength has expanded to help save many lives.
Using his position in the world as a musician and as a voice, along with the President of CSI Entertainment James Chippendale, started the Love, Hope, Strength Foundation. Love Hope Strength comes from a song by The Alarm called Strength. Give me love, give me strength, give me something to hold on to.
The foundation, including Peters, Slim Jim Phantom from The Stray Kats, Glen Tilbrook from Squeeze, Cy Curnin and Jamie West-Oram of The Fixx, along with other ‘trekkers’ and cancer survivors, climbed Mount Everest and performed the ‘World’s Highest Concert’ according to the Guinness Book of World Records. It was a 14-day trek to reach the top. Money raised from that show went to provide the country of Nepal with their first Mammography machine.
The documentary on Everest Rocks airs on the satellite music channel Palladia occasionally.
The American-base in Denver, Colorado, focuses on getting Americans to sign up on the National donor list to be a bone marrow donor. That is where Rob Rushing comes in to the picture.
Rushing, a long-time fan of The Alarm, saw what Peters was doing with the charity. After watching the documentary about Mount Everest, he knew he had to be involved. He went online to www.lovehopestrength.org for more information.
“The American base is in Denver, CO, so I contacted the Denver people through the website www.lovehopestrength.org and asked what I could do in Nashville. They told me they did not have funds, it was very limited and they were trying to get it going. I said I did not ask for money, I ask what I could do and they told me to fly. They do many large music festivals throughout the country and Bonnaroo was coming up. They were going to be at Bonnaroo and so I volunteered to be at Bonnaroo so I could trial by fire, and literally fire because it was the hottest five days of my life, I had a mini heat stroke while I was there and kept going the whole time. On the last day, my buddy Matt helped us as well. It showed us what they are all about,” said Rushing.
The goal in America is not necessarily to raise money, but to raise awareness and save lives.
“What we do in America mainly, because Americans have cancer treatment and can get treatment, but the problem is not enough Americans are on the National Bone Marrow list. So we concentrate on getting people on the National Bone Marrow list by going to concerts and other non-traditional events that nobody was going to, If you get on the Bone Marrow list at 20, 21, 22 years old, you have a much better chance of saving someone’s life than someone does at 40 or 50. You cannot sign up after 65. When you sign up, you are on the list until you turn 65. No one in America was targeting the younger crowd to get on the list, luckily through our partners DKMS of New York, a lab; they allow us to get people on the list free of charge. If you sign up independently, there is a $65 lab fee.”
Signing up on the National Bone Marrow list is painless. You fill out some paperwork and have a cheek swab taken. On top of that, at this Tuesday’s launch party, you can get a free massage just for signing up.
Rushing states, “Bringing it to Nashville is my passion. We have a great group of volunteers already. We have done two events. We started with a small event, myself, Matthew Gray and Penny Tyler. We worked a concert at Exit/In called Real Big Fish and The Beat Officers. We signed up 45 people at our first event.”
“The biggest thing to me is that Nashville is Music City and is my home, my love. How could this charity not be involved in Music City USA? They started in Denver and really do a lot.”
Is it painful? That is the most common question asked at the events.
“It used to be incredibly painful, but medical advancements have continued day by day, now 85% of the people, it is almost identical to donating plasma. From what I am told, I am on the list. 15% they still have to drill in the hip, you can never save a life if you don’t get on the list,” says Rushing. “We take a cheek swab, if your cheek cells match up with someone in need of bone marrow; they contact you and ask you to go to a lab. That lab will take a little blood and make sure you are a real match. Bone marrow has to match exactly or it will not work. If you a continual match, they will go forward and you still have to volunteer, you will not be forced to do anything. Saving a life would be worth a little bit of pain.”
Thirty-four matches were made since 2007 within the United states. That is quite possibly 34 lives saved. Annually, thousands of people are in need of bone marrow. A bone marrow transplant may be their only chance at survival. With the medical advancements, the process can be as easy as giving blood or plasma. People ‘sell’ blood and plasma all the time, why not donate needed bone marrow and save a life.
Cancer is one of the leading causes of death and touches just about everyone. Would you be willing to donate bone marrow to a complete stranger to save their life? If a stranger could save your loved ones life by donating, would you do the same? Only 30% of people can find a perfect match within their family. Therefore, the love of the people who sign up on the list can save lives. If you do not get on the list, you will never know if you can be someone’s hero.
“Our main group will be trekking on Mt Fuji on the same day as the concert. Nashville needs to be involved in this and it is going to grow exponentially I do believe. We’re all going to save some lives, that is what I am doing it for,” says Rushing. “It was born from my love of a rock n roll band when I was 14 yrs old and what Mike Peters is doing for the world. Our national director Shannon Foley, she goes out of her way to save lives everyday. The charity has been in existence for three years and has saved many lives. They have the volunteer list I am lucky enough to be on of the first 10 Rock Stars (Volunteers) on the site. I am just trying to do my part.”
Bottom line: We are saving lives through music.
