The following blog was originally posted on the Offshore Sailing School Blog (see: www.offshoresailingschool.com/blog) by Offshore Sailing School CEO and President, Doris Colgate. It's featured here with her permission:

As most of you know, Offshore Sailing School is a national sponsor of The Leukemia Cup Regattas – a fund-raising arm of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS). Yesterday I received a “Thank You” email I want to share with all of you. The author gave me permission and I have kept out names and locations to protect her from spammers, but the story is true, and heartbreaking. Before I received this we had already decided to donate $25 of every regular course tuition we teach in 2010 to LLS. If you are considering sailing lessons, learning to sail, or a bareboat cruising course, this might push you over the edge. I know there is a lot of tragedy surrounding all of us these days, particularly as we see what is happening in Haiti. But many diseases are now cured because of the incredible resesarch done to find cures for blood cancers.

Here is her story:

“On Halloween at 4:30 p.m., my fiancee was diagnosed with Leukemia AML-M3. He was 40 years old, days away from his 41st birthday. He had never had any symptoms of anything more than a fever for a few days and a little difficulty breathing, which is what brought us to an ER unit three times, the last on October 30th. He was diagnosed with walking pneumonia and pneumonia and was transferred to a hospital that Friday night, where he was diagnosed with AML with the devastating words that if we did not start chemo that night he would not be alive in a week. Unfortunately, those words would ring true even though we did start chemo less than six hours after his diagnosis.

“Thirty-six hours is never enough time to prepare to lose your best friend, your future, your lover, your life and then to watch him slip away so quickly. It is a disease that I am only now beginning to wrap my brain around how it attacks the body.  My fiancee was an unforgettable man. He got his first sailboat at age 12. He spent every summer on his boat and eventually settled in a sailing community. There were several years that he lived aboard. I can remember the smile on his face like it was yesterday when we watched 12 Metres sailing last fall.

“He was an amazing man, with a mechanical engineering degree, but his hobbies made him who he was  – an accomplished sailor who loved the sea. He held a Merchant Marines Sea Captains License and a private pilots license. At his funeral all of his pall bearers wore captain’s hats in his honor. At any given time he was the entertainer of entertainers – the one that everyone ALWAYS wanted to be around.

“I want to say thank you for all that you do and have done for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. You cannot imagine how comforting it is to know that people out there care and offer time and effort to a cause so close to my heart. The day we sat in the hospital the first time I did not even know how to spell Leukemia and now I feel like I am becoming an expert on it.

“I am just starting to get back to life after all that happened. I have joined LLS and would really love to come participate at some point in one of your weekends. I want to give back and be involved in anything that I can to help other people that might be in our shoes one day. I cannot do anything to help or save my fiancee but I can try to help other people the way you are.”

I cried when I read her email. I hope to meet her someday soon and give her a strong hug for her candor and resolve. You may not know how many sailors have been afflicted by lymphoma, leukemia or myeloma -and how many sailors have someone close to them or in their circle of friends who are going through treatment or are in remission. We always said the world was small, and it becomes smaller and smaller as our circle of sailing friends gather around this very important cause. I hope you will too.

Doris Colgate, Chief Executive Officer and President,

Offshore Sailing School