GIST 31 Wishes…what does that mean?

Every day, whether consciously or not, we make a wish for the future. Something we hope happens, something we hope doesn’t, something we really want. We at LRG HQ are no exception and we got to thinking that we could turn some of these hopes and goals into something positive and uplifting. Hence, the GIST 31 wishes campaign was born.

During the month of December, we have highlighted one GIST wish each day of the month. We’ve named this campaign #GIST31wishes because darn it, we GISTers love GIST word play. ;)

snowflakeEach day, we posted the wishes you have sent our way on social media, with the hope that they will inspire others, bring awareness to GIST and the Life Raft Group, and bring us closer together as a community.

Each week, we have summarized here on our website the awesome wishes you are hoping for this coming year.

If you’re on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/etc be sure to follow our pages and share our posts so we can spread the #GIST31wishes hashtag and most importantly, awareness.

We thank you for sharing your wishes with us, and as 2015 unfolds, we will report back as wishes turn into realities.

Here are the wishes you shared with us this week:

Day 24: Taking my GIST wish to Santa: I wish that no cancer patient should ever have to go without expert treatment because of financial issues. – Mary Garland, LRG Marketing and Communications Associate

Day 25: The LRG Staff sends you 130,000 plus wishes for continued education, support, research and advocacy for 2015. Keep on rowing!

Day 26: I wish that next year’s GIST Awareness day highlighting the 13 people diagnosed each day is twice as successful, reaching twice as many people and impacting twice as many lives. – Erin Kristoff, LRG Marketing and Communications Director

Day 27: Our GIST wish is that more people become as motivated and proactive as our grandpa was, and take grasp of their bad situations and make them positive.” – Helena and Matthew Mattioli, LRG Operations Associate and LRG Events and Design Coordinator

Day 28: My GIST wish is to be able to support patients and their doctors all around the world by using virtual technology to connect them with leading GIST experts, ensuring that they have the knowledge necessary to beat this disease! – Sara Rothschild, LRG Program Director

Day 29: My wish is for GIST patients and caregivers to feel at peace and in love with life. – Diana Nieves, LRG Operations Director

Day 30: My wish is that we can accelerate the rate of cures for rare diseases like GIST through increased funding for our research team, research centers and agencies like the NIH. – Marisa Bolognese, LRG Deputy Executive Director

Day31: My wish is for my daughter, Alia, to obviously be cured once and for all, as well as all the people who suffer with GIST. But until then, my wishes are for the research to advance in finding more targeted therapies with less harsh side effects, for the insurance agencies to work with their patients and approve them when they are seeking out a GIST specialist not in the network, and lastly, I wish for more funding and support that goes directly to the research for GIST. – Marie Coleman, LRG Member and mother of Alia.

View the GIST Wishes Days 1-8

View the GIST Wishes Days 9-16

View the GIST Wishes Days 17-23