Letter to the Editors: Thanks to Ocracoke

Dear Ocracoke Current,

I have been coming to the island since I can remember. My parents started coming to Ocracoke before I was born and finally started bringing me along when I was 6. Now I am 19 and we at least go to the island once or more a year.

Two years ago I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a blood cancer. For the remaining part of my sophomore year and my summer I had to go through chemotherapy and numerous surgeries. Therefore, we were not able to make it to Ocracoke that summer.

The Make A Wish Foundation came in after I completed my treatment and asked me if I had one wish, what would it be?  I replied that my wish would be to go to Ocracoke Island for a week and stay on the biggest house on the island. I picked the house “Solitude” and it was AWESOME. The house had everything a kid needed: a game room, home theatre and a basketball goal. It was also right down the street from Ocracoke Coffee Co! 

While I was there that week I made several friends; just to name some of them were Lucy, Chelsey, Katie, Amanda, Sam, Kevin, Andrew and Emmet. I would like to thank each and every one of them for showing me around the island and treating me totally normal. 

I would also like to mention Rufus and Dee Keel at the Sunglass Shop for being overwhelmingly nice and treating me like a celebrity. Thank you to Chef Michael at the Flying Melon Café for preparing the best meal I have ever had. If I was one of those restaurant critics, I would give his restaurant five stars. 

Jason Daniels is also a good friend of ours. He had the similar type of cancer I did. When I was going through treatment he would give me some tips like keeping ice cubes in your mouth while a certain chemotherapy drug is going in to prevent from getting sores in your mouth. I would like to say thank you to him and his family for treating us like we are a part of his family. It was definitely a week that I will always remember and how genuinely caring and kindhearted the people of Ocracoke Island truly are. 

This year I will  be walking in the Light the Night Walk for the Lymphoma and Leukemia Society for the third year.  I am walking to raise money to find a cure for blood cancer, to save lives. Would you join me in taking a step to finding a cure?

Thank you.

Jennifer Cowart

Here is the link to my fundraising page: http://pages.lightthenight.org/nc/Raleigh12/teamiLIVESTRONG 

Editors' note: We first got to know Jennifer when we published a story about the Pennies for Patients fundraiser at Ocracoke School and her parents responded with a letter of thanks. Jennifer also provided us her Best Shot of the lighthouse in black and white that we posted recently.