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When your child gets cancer, there’s no one to blame. You can’t sue God.

You’re sucked into a nightmarish world, where every moment is a struggle to regain some semblance of control. You need to know what is happening to your child. Wikipedia helped give me that understanding during the darkest time in my life.

That’s why I’m participating in this fundraiser. That’s why I hope you’ll donate $5, $10, $20 or whatever you can afford to sustain this incredible, free source of knowledge.

My daughter, Jenna, has survived cancer twice. The first time, in 1992, she was not yet two years old. It seemed impossible. I didn’t realize the severity of her condition until I was standing under the “Cancer Center” sign on the door of the hospital. It was like getting hit by a truck.

There was no Wikipedia then, so I spent hours in hospital libraries, trying to understand more about her disease. Medical research was difficult, and each new book posed more questions than it answered. It felt like I was reading a different language.

Thankfully, Jenna recovered completely. She managed the chemotherapy with impressive strength. She grew and played like all children should.

Twelve years later, we got devastating news once again. Jenna had osteosarcoma, a life-threatening bone cancer that originated in her femur. She had chemo, then limb-salvage surgery - replacing her femur and knee with titanium - then more chemo. The treatments lasted nine months.

This time, as soon as she was diagnosed, I spent the entire night online. I didn’t sleep. I found myself scouring Wikipedia, which until then I completely took for granted. It was much more than a reference for me. It empowered me and helped me navigate uncharted waters.

The speed and ease of finding and understanding articles was a stark contrast to roaming the library stacks years before. Now, I really understood my daughter’s doctors, which was invaluable for making informed decisions about her treatment. I became an expert in my daughter’s disease.

Incredible as it may seem, volunteers do all the work of writing and editing Wikipedia. The Wikimedia Foundation pays for the servers, bandwidth and all the other technology and people required to run the number five website in the world. But there are no ads, so the information can always remain free from influence.

Please give what you can to keep Wikipedia free and healthy for all who may need it.

Thank you,

Judy Mollica

Juno Beach, Florida.