On July 31st. 2006 I was diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML) at Dana-Farber hospital in Boston MA. It was a difficult time for the next 40 days that I spent in the hospital. 40 days of not seeing my three children and not knowing if I would beat cancer. My wife later told me the doctors weren't sure if I'd even pull through but asked that she not say anything to me so I could keep my spirits up. I wondered why they were always smiling at me. It's strange what happens to you when come to the realization your time might be at an end. Two things went through my mind - First was "What have I done with my life? Will I be remembered for anything?". Second was I wanted to live long enough so my 3 young children wouldn't think of me as a picture on the wall. I wanted them to have memories of us together. Luckily, I responded well to chemotherapy and was able to put the cancer into remission. Unfortunately, AML only has a 30% cure rate with chemotherapy alone, so my best chance was to hope for a bone marrow transplant. It was mid October, shortly after my 35th birthday when I found out my brother was a perfect match for a bone marrow transplant. I think that was the best day of my life! My chances for a cure went from 30% to 60%.

When I came home from the hospital, my daughter and I made a candle called "Butterfly Kisses".

"I truly missed those good night kisses!"

I keep a close eye out for stories like mine of people needing to find a bone morrow donor. I know some people still waiting for a match to be found. So maybe this story compels you to buy some great candles and donate something in the process. Maybe you'll read of a bone marrow drive and stand in line for an hour just to have a Q-tip swabbed in your mouth and get a call some years later and find out you might save someone's life. You might write a letter to your congressman and tell him or her not to pass the bill out there to cut cancer research by 80 million dollars for the first time in 30 years. Lance Armstrong said it best "3000 people die every two days of cancer. That's a 9/11 every two days in America". Don't wait for the day you ask yourself "WHAT HAVE I DONE?"

Please visit www.livestrong.org/advocacy and select "Take Action" for listings of your state representatives and sample text of what to write them. A piece of paper, one envelope and a $.39 stamp can make a difference.

What sets us apart from other soy candle companies? It's all about the scent! The scent added to a candle is the most expensive part of making a candle. To cut cost most companies will cut back on scent. NixWix adds more scent per candle maybe even more than is recommended. We have customers that bring our candles to work and just take the candle cover off and never light them. This is a testament of how strongly scented our candles are.