As I finished shaving today, I realized that I am not going to shave again for 30 days… as I start my No Shave November participation.. a simple and unique way to raise cancer awareness.  You can find more details about it at http://www.no-shave.org

Last year I started about 2 weeks late, since I didn’t know about it.  This picture shows the progress during November 2013.

So other than not having to shave for 30 days (yeah), why am I doing this?  I would like to dedicate this year to 3 important people in my life, that succumbed to Cancer.

Kurt Bunney

Kurt was my first boss in 1995 at Infinisys.  I still remember his question in the interview “Can you cut code?”.  He was my big brother, mentor, role-model and had significant influence on my life.  My first drive through experience – going to a customer meeting, we ordered sandwiches , he was driving of course. i asked “Are we going to stop to eat these?”.. his response is: “why do you think it is called drive through… you eat and drive.. now finish it quickly before we reach client’s office”… so began one of my many life lessons from him.  One day he told me to go watch Seinfeld TV series.. he said “that’s the only way you will learn how to speak english normally…”  So I became a Seinfeld junkie… and it did help with my communication skills.  I can write all day about Kurt… one of his funny lines was “Dude, you are so skinny… you need to run around in shower… just to get wet”.

Unfortunately he developed brain cancer in 2006 and died in 2007 at the age of 48.  We had lunch with him during one of his treatment periods and I couldn’t stand to see the man I really looked up to go through such a phase.  When he passed away, I was out of town, couldn’t attend his funeral… but not sure if I would have been able to attend even if I was in town.  Kurt.. you will always be my big brother… and I am lucky to have you as a friend in my life.

Janett Chambers

Janett was a colleague, friend and life coach.  She worked with me 2006-2008 and didn’t make the move to Florida in 2008.  She had cancer right after that and when I came back to Arizona in 2011 I had the privilege of working with her on a limited basis as she became my life coach and inspired me to grow my business again.  She passed away late 2012 and I didn’t knew about it for a couple of months.

I wrote a post about her in January 2013 – https://prasad.chavali.com/2013/01/29/employee-colleague-friends-and-life-coach-a-tribute-to-janett/  Looks like the star they put up for her on Standup2cancer.org is still active.  https://constellation.standup2cancer.org/24330

Mike Hunter

I met Mike hunter in 1994 when I visited Storm Lake with Lesli.  He was married to Lesli’s best Friend Sheryl.  Since then, they visited us a few times, and we used to stop at their house in Omaha before we drive up to lakes in Iowa during our trips.  Needless to say, Mike was a very genuine and cool guy.. and we had great time talking and meeting up.  I don’t think I have seen such a hard core Nebraska Cornhuskers and Kansas City Chiefs fan.  He used to collect shot glasses and I tried to do my part to contribute.

Mike passed away last year after fighting cancer for a few years.  On my last trip to Omaha before he passed away, I developed a fever and couldn’t give him a hug or spend time in his house, as his immune system was so weak.  But in spirit… I wanted to tell him that he was a great friend and he will be dearly missed.

Now, there were other people friends and family that had cancer in lives that were able to beat it… thanks to the advance in medicine.

I will contribute my share of savings from not shaving this month and already bought my T-shirt from the website.  I urge you all to just take a minute and remember people in your life that had a brush with cancer.

I will post pictures on how I look during the month of November often!!