My Birthday

Dear Friends, Colleagues, Neighbors and Family.

(c) M. Hallahan/Sumitomo Chemical - Olyset Net

This Saturday (April 17th) I will be turning 25 and as I embark on the quarter century land mark I wanted to request from you to think about the millions of people who won’t ever make it this far.

On April 25th exactly 8 days after my birthday is World Malaria Day. It is the one day we can focus the world’s attention on this disease that is reasonable for 1 million deaths a year.

Malaria is one of the biggest injustices in the world today and no disease has claimed more lives than malaria has, from famous historic figures such as Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan to the child who has just passed away in Sub Saharan Africa as you finish this sentence.

Malaria is a disease that kills a child every 30 seconds what makes this statistic so much worse is that malaria is a completely preventable disease. we have a saying that I use when talking about malaria that is ‘dying of malaria is like dying of a broken arm’. Imagine falling of your bike or down the stairs and you break your arm and because of that broken arm you die. The thought of it actually seems kind of silly how can we in this modern day dying from something like a broken arm? That’s what it is like dying from malaria, it doesn’t have to happen and it shouldn’t happen.

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