"Johnae Ain't Got Time for Cancer"

Hello everyone,

Today, an English article :)

Pour la version française, cliquez ici :).

Today, I'll present you a friend of mine : Johnae. She's 27 and lives in Florida. Last month, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. Her life changed suddenly.


To have a chance to be treated, she needs money support and she has launched a fundraiser on GoFundMe.

The fundraiser GoFundMe : Johnae Ain't Got Time for Cancer is open :).

Today, 2500 $ has been reached on a 8500 $ goal :).

If you want to spare a few dollars, feel free and I'll be very grateful :).
If you want to give but you're afraid to give your credit card number, please contact me and I'll explain to you how I can help :).

Now, the story :) sorry for the poor English xD

"I've met Johnae in high school. It was a simple student exchange program. She was learning French and I was learning English. 

Before her arrival, I've only had some pictures of her, her family, her dad's house and a handwritten letter. That marked the beginning of my passion for a language, a country and a culture. 

I wasn't that good in high school in English. Still now, I'm not fluent. But I try. That was the situation I was trying to explain to her when she arrived. 

My parents (I will always be grateful to them for that) happily agreed to have a foreign girl in their home for a week. So Johnae discovered France, our habits, our culture and our language too. 

I won't lie to you. All this happened a long time ago and I don't remember every single moment. I do remember, however, some precise stuffs.
Like, one night, we decided to watch a movie at home. Monster Inc. And I asked Johnae if she wanted to see it in French with subtitles. She suggested English without subtitles. And that was the first time I saw an English speaking movie without translation to help me understand  everything. 

"Come on, that's not difficult, it's a pixar movie". Yes, it is. Have you tried to watch it in English for the first time, without subtitles, when you were 14? Try, and we'll see ;)
I remember she liked chicken too, and wasn't very appealed by French meals. 

I clearly remember her, coming with me in bus to my school every day and everyone except me was talking to her in English. Why? Because I wanted her French to improve, not the pronunciation of my colleagues to be corrected. And I was the only one in my class, to have a fellow US student with me so. Everyone was trying to steal her from me XD. 

We went to DisneyLand I think. We also went to Paris. But I was particularly proud to present her a jewel from my region called The Chaalis Abbey. L'abbaye de Chaalis in French. There was a rose garden to visit and it was a place that perspired Old Europe, you know. Like castles, Middle-age, etc. 

In a nutshell, we've done a lot of things, although I can't remember everything very precisely. Why? First, that was twelve years ago (gosh!). Secondly, I had a camera, but I remember we encountered a problem with the film when I tried to get it from the camera :(.
I remember being sad when Johnae left, and I remember being sadder when we stopped communicating. 

Why again? Internet was not the simple thing it is today, so we wrote letters and a few mails. Maybe some letters got lost or we forgot to maintain a constant exchange. I don't know.
Years later, I try to search for her name in Facebook, just to see how she was. 

I found her, I write something to say hi and we stayed in touch since. I do not like social network, I must admit. But find again my penpal friend from high school is one of the good things social network can do. 

Great coincidence too, at that time, I was trying to change my way of living (like, eat healthier, exercise, read, be nice, etc.) and it appeared that Johnae, from the other side of the world, was doing the same thing and she was doing great! 

Her profile was filled with happy pictures, motivation and good inspiration. Still is.
It was at that point, when she began to have a healthy life, that fate decided to step in."

Thank you a lot for reading this and thank you even more if you participate or share this article.

I want her to know that we do care on this side of the world and also know that every little thing can literally change someone's life, by giving a little bit.

Thanks again.

See you :)


D.