Elijah Dimas of Santa Fe, the RMN’s youngest midshipman, is battleing cancer. Courtesy photoCommunity News:
Elijah Dimas (HMS Implacable the Sante Fe chapter of The Royal Manticoran Navy, the Official Honor Harrington Fan Club) is the RMN’s youngest midshipman. Elijah is 9 years old, entering fifth grade grade, and fond of math, science and especially art.
He is an avid fan of science-fiction (especially David Weber’s Honor Harrington series), Pokémon, and the Oakland Raiders. He loves elephants, ventriloquism, jokes, the colors green and yellow, and he particularly enjoys helping other children face their own challenges.
Elijah lives his life according the quote “Live Your Life Fearlessly!”
This young man was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma (a rare, debilitating bone cancer) at the age of seven and given only two weeks to live. Here he is, two years later, defying the odds and fighting on in a way too few of us could ever hope to emulate. More than 70 tumors were found at initial diagnosis. In two weeks, they were all eliminated through aggressive chemotherapy, but nine of them stubbornly returned before he could undergo stem cell transplant therapy.
According to The Royal Manticoran Navy website, although Elijah has every reason to be down, depressed, and angry at the world, instead, he insists on visiting during the holidays to cheer up other children! He wants to live, and he wants to dedicate his life to helping others as a child life specialist.
Elijah is a hero to everyone who knows him, and he’s been fully adopted by the crew of HMS Implacable and the entire global community that is the Royal Manticoran Navy, the website said. His is the example we all strive to emulate, and now the Navy wants to step up and aid him and his family in every way it can.
The author of the Honor Harrington series himself, David Weber, has offered up a slot on his highly coveted First Readers List to the highest bidder of a special auction.
First Readers List is a closed list of individuals who receive advanced copies of Weber’s manuscripts at the same time they are sent to the publisher, and long before anyone else ever gets to see the work. First readers see the work before any copy edit, giving them a chance to read it before anyone else and to see how the editing process can change between submission and final printing.
The highest bidder for this charitable auction will be helping to defray the enormous expenses faced by Elijah’s family as they continue to struggle day-to-day to make ends meet while taking care of their son. His treatments take him across the country, with frequent trips to Denver’s Children’s Hospital and as far as the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. These trips and all the attendant costs are a severe hardship for these exceptional people; Elijah’s mother, Patricia, quit her job to care for him full time, and his father, Anthony, works hard to support the whole family (often missing the trips in order to keep the core income flowing).
This is your chance to join a highly exclusive club and be among the very privileged few who get to see the works of David Weber long before anyone else. Visit https://charityproject.trmn.org/ and register or log in to be able to bid and check the status of the bid. Bidding will close Aug. 13.
If you would like to help with Elijah’s medical bills, his family has setup a GoFundMe page to accept donations.
