Meet Teresa of teresabelle designs and her eight-year-old daughter, Emma. Teresa used to be a designer at ScrapBookBytes but needed to quit back in February 2011 due to some serious health issues that Emma is having.

Teresa absolutely loves and adores designing, but right now, it has been put on the back burner to focus on what is most important – Emma.  She needs some help; however, and asked if we would see if it was something we were interested and/or comfortable doing.

She thought of doing a charity kit and asking for your help, but a different opportunity came up that is easier for everyone involved and will generate more money.

Emma’s Story

(The following is taken directly from Teresa’s email which was forwarded to me). 

Emma was born with a really rare, fatal disease, called Fanconi Anemia (FA). It causes bone marrow failure and cancer, including leukemia. Right now she is in severe bone marrow failure. I just posted a blog entry about her here, showing a little bit about what she has gone through in her life, if you had time to read it: http://teresabelle.blogspot.com/2011/05/briberyto-help-emma.html.

There is no cure for her. We have some treatment options available to us to extend her life, but without going into a lot of complicated detail, the fact is our baby girl will not survive this disease. We need more research into it so that we can find a cure. 

The frustrating part is that it is very, very rare - only about 300 cases in the USA and 3,000 in the world. No one knows it exists, so there is no money regularly coming in to our research fund to help find a cure. The research fund is called the Fanconi Anemia Research Fund (FARF), and they have done an amazing job improving treatments, extending life expectancy from around eight years old into their twenties. They are continuing their research to hopefully find a cure. It's up to the families, like ours, to hold fundraisers and try to get money to come in as often as we can. Honestly, it gets really burdensome at times trying to think of things to do to help.

Earning Money for Fanconi Anemia

We have a unique opportunity with Chase Community Giving on Facebook. They are holding a charity contest and will give away $20,000 to $500,000 to the top 25 charities. It ends today – May 25.   In their first phase, we were able to win $25,000. But in this second phase, we are having a really tough time getting enough votes to place in the top 25, but we are really close. Ideally, we'd like to place high enough to win $500,000. My baby is worth every bit of effort it takes to get that money, but I only know so many people!

This is where I ask for your help, in a different way than the typical charity kit. I know I might be completely out of place in asking for it, so I totally understand if you'd rather not. But, of course, I'd love if it you would help!

If you are interested, I was wondering if you could post a little something on your blog or Facebook or Twitter (or all of them) asking for people to help. All we need is ONE vote per person, and that's it. It's really SO easy.

Remember – No monetary donation is needed!! It just takes 10 seconds of your time to vote for this sweet little girl!

How YOU Can Help

All you need to do is simply follow these three steps:

1. Log into your Facebook account
2. “Like” the Chase Community Giving Fanconi Anemia Research Fund page
3. Click on the VOTE button and that’s it.

If we can help them raise enough votes – we can also help the Fanconi Anemia Research Fund win anywhere between $20,000 to $50,000 to help find a cure for this deadly disease!

I am asking each of you, personally, to please take just 10 seconds to go and vote.  The voting period ends tonight – WEDNESDAY, MAY 25 – at Midnight (eastern standard time).  We’re running out of time.

Stop by Teresa’s blog – teresabelle designs – and meet Emma – and tell me if you cannot spend 10 seconds to help this adorable little girl.

You have my vote Teresa and Emma, and a special place in my heart and my prayers.