How We Started – from our Founder, Andrew Gemmell
On March 26th, 2008, I was diagnosed with Testicular Cancer. At the time the cancer was considered Stage One Seminoma, which was the best case scenario. After surgery to take care of it, I had a very good attitude for about a year and a half, until October 16th, 2009, when I was diagnosed again with a seminoma – but this time Stage Three in my Para-Aortic Lymph Node. So the decision was made that I would go through three rounds of chemotherapy, which turned to four because of complications.
Interestingly enough, my older brother was actually diagnosed and treated for the same thing five years before me. He is in remission after those five years and still going strong!
While I was in the hospital for my first round of chemotherapy, I had an idea. I thought to myself, “I want to make a difference... I need to make a difference.” It was then that I thought of “Protect Your Pair,” because... well, I had testicular cancer and... enough said. I wanted to inform the public that cancer is a serious concern and a lot more common than people think.
After a few weeks of being in and out of the hospital I still had the idea in the back of my mind, but it wasn't a major priority while going through treatment until one night in the hospital when I got a message from my friend Jenn Deuel. She said she wanted to help me with the benefit. After talking back and forth she and I decided to start a website and go from there.
After Jenn and I had starting getting ideas out there we decided that we needed someone to help us handle the money that we could trust. So after some thought the most logical person to have help us out was of course my sister, Jillian Gemmell. After adding Jill to the team, I took sometime during chemo to create our first website and with the help of Jenn organized our first event!
A couple months later after talking with the team, we decided to add Christine Borsellino! She has also been one of my very good friends since I was in high school, just like Jenn. With Chrissy added to the team there are now the four of us! Chrissy will be tackling our Creative needs, and she is a great addition to Protect Your Pair!
That is where we're at now – starting the organization itself and making a name for ourselves. It has been a little tough because I didn’t finish chemo until January 8th, so I was a bit under the weather while in the process of establishing this. But with the support of family like Jill and friends like Jenn and Chrissy I am doing great!
Currently it is only Jenn, Chrissy, Jill, and myself that are part of Protect Your Pair. Jenn has the title of Director of Public Relations, Chrissy has the title of Director of Creative, Jill has the title of Financial Director, and I have the title of Founder. I like the sound of their titles, mine is so... simple.
Anyway, we can use all the support we can get to make this a successful Organization! If you have any questions email Jenn, Chrissy, Jill, and I at info@protectyourpair.org!
Thank You all for your time and I hope to see and talk to you all soon.
From all of us here at PYP,
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