I was invited to attend a dinner last night for a local sports league – a group of squash teams from different clubs who all get together for an annual competition. My role was that of representative from the charity-of-choice and so I went armed with a few ideas but no fixed agenda on what I’d say and how to pitch our story. My goal, however, was to sell the need for more people to come forward and sign up as bone marrow donors, and most of all, to stimulate some emptying of their wallets.
I never write a speech in advance – because somewhere between the start of an event and actually being introduced, inevitably some gem will present itself as the foundation for a story that’s relevant and most of all will resonate with the crowd. In this case it was the issue of age, and sitting on a table of self-confessed “oldies” who gloated irrepressibly about how they trashed and trounced the younger players, that was my cue.
I told the one about the 49-year old who is told that she’s “too old” and as a result, goes on to save the life of a small boy across the ocean who needed her bone marrow in order to survive. Amid the banter and the booze, for a few brief moments there was absolute silence…
Later on in the evening – several thousand dollars and much red wine later in fact – somebody said “we really felt that we had to help you because you made us all think, what if that had been me?”
As always it’s humbling to be on the receiving end of such generosity from a group of absolute strangers and it’s not just about money; it’s the willingness to take a ride, however short, on someone else’s journey. My job? Simply to paint the scenery and let them fill out the characters…
Thank You to the Cosmo League, Singapore