Let me introduce you to Oren Miller. This married 41 year old father of two has changed the way dad blogging happens at the keyboard and away from it. Oren founded the Facebook Dad Bloggers group a few years ago. It was key in creating a community of dad bloggers that had never existed previously. Through the daily interactions of it’s nearly 800 members the dad blogging community there has grown into conferences, meetups, brand partnerships and a sense of family among its members. Advice, challenges to be better, support and humor permeate the community.
Oren was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in late May of this year. This devastating diagnosis carries an average life expectancy of 1 year. There is a crowdfunding effort taking place now spearheaded by his friends and fellow dad bloggers as a way for us to support him and his family in a time of need. They have given us so much through the creation of our dad blogging community that we want to give back. The funds raised will be to help with medical bills, save some money for his children’s future, and give the family an amazing last vacation together.
Oren is an amazing person. He didn’t ask for this help. It was volunteered by the community he’s helped so much. We are trying to break the “bystander effect” when it comes to giving help. What is that? It’s when a group of people see a victim of some sort, but do not offer help. The likelihood of help being given to a person in need goes down as the audience of the negative incident grows. This is true unless a person steps out to help. That first person often starts a domino effect of help that continues to grow and involve others. This is why I’m posting. We need your help to help Oren and his family.
In his “Cancer” blog post Oren puts his life into perspective in a way I’ve never heard done before:
On Friday, 5/30/14, I found out I had a Stage 4 lung cancer. People in my condition have about a year to live on average, and treatment is now limited to making the next year more bearable. There are other options that may be discussed later, including experimental treatments, and I’m staying optimistic, but frankly, I think I know where I stand.
You can read the full post on his blog BloggerFather.com
When I was an expectant father and brand new to dad blogging, Oren graciously welcomed me into the community. He even wrote a nice blog post reflecting on his time as an expectant father. This meant a lot to me. We were also able to meet in person earlier this year at the Dad 2.0 Summit and had some great conversations.
If you can, please consider donating to the GiveForward campaign. It would mean a lot to me, his family and the dad blogging community as a whole. To give, stay up to date on the campaign, and/or ask the organizer’s questions about it please visit: http://dgrd.co/oren
Very much feel for Oren. Thanks for sharing with heartfelt emotion. My thoughts are with him and his family.