About This Homepage
About This Homepage
The majority of this homepage was conceived, designed and written by 15 year old Melinda in 1995 and 1996 when
she had terminal stage IV Askins Tumor. In this update, the links have been revised so that they represent the latest in
information and treatment for childhood and adolescent cancers, a few pictures have been added, a couple of pages have been
updated, and some of the pages that she was not able to finish have been inserted. However, Melinda's thoughts and words
and the look and feel of the homepage have been left virtually intact.
Her dream of providing hope and help to other Cancer Kids and their caregivers was translated into this WWW document by
Melinda and her father, David, as a truly co-operative labor of love. Neither one of them had ever attempted to develop an
HTML document before, and apart from maintaining this Homepage for as long as they were able, both Melinda and David said
they had no plans to ever develop another one.
This entire Homepage was written using Microsoft Word for Windows (version 6.0), utilizing no HTML editors at all. After
searching the WWW to obtain a few HTML "How To" documents, Melinda and David coded away, often with one reading the
instructions and the other pressing the keys! Although not a religious person, David is now fully convinced that there must
have been an external force guiding their hands and their minds while they coded, debugged, and edited this project, all in
less than three weeks.
For the few times when they got really stuck, advice and debugging was provided by Melinda's older brother,
David Jr. who worked as a computer consultant, and by Rich Rutter of Woodhill Consultants in the UK who sent them what
quickly became their primary reference manual.
All of the computer and connect time used in developing this Homepage, and in making it available on the WWW, was
most generously provided by the Wimsey/iSTAR Internet Corporation.
In all cases, Melinda and David tried to utilize icons, links, etc. that were not copyrighted or restricted in any way.
But, if in the rush to get this page up they missed getting one or two permissions, please be gentle ... it was
unintentional!
The success of this Homepage has far exceeded even Melinda's highest expectations. So far she and this Homepage have
been featured on two National News broadcasts, have been featured or mentioned in several newspaper and magazine articles,
and have had links added to numerous Homepages all over the world.
If you would like to add a link to your page , and if you are willing to do it in a dignified manner (something that
Melinda insisted upon ... this is an "Awareness" and "Help" page for Cancer Kids, not a personal quest for the instant
stardom of Melinda), then please feel free to do so. Our only request is an E-Mail telling us about the Homepage that you
have added it to.
Finally: The intent of this page is not to solicit donations of any kind. Melinda's family will accept absolutely no financial contributions, nor will they support any direct or indirect solicitation of funds
(charitable or otherwise) in Melinda's name. If you receive any E-Mail, or if you discover a homepage that asks for
donations by referring either to Melinda or to her Homepage ... please ignore it.
If you do want to help provide comfort to seriously ill Cancer Kids, or if you wish to help support legitimate research
on childhood cancer, please donate directly to the Oncology Research Department at B.C. Children's Hospital, to the Canadian
or American Cancer Societies, to the Michael Cuccione Foundation, to the Children's Wish Foundation, or to the Make A Wish
Foundation.
Thank you for taking the time to share in Melinda's dream.
Melinda at the computer working on this webpage.
