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This was received from Associate Head Coach Jamie Smith of the University of South Carolina women's soccer program:

Please come out and support your Gamecock Women's Soccer Team in their final home regular season match of the season, as the #17 Gamecocks (14-3-2) host #8 Florida (14-2-2) for the Southeastern Conference Regular Season Championship! Don't miss out on the chance to see your Gamecocks crowned SEC Regular Season Champions!

* It is Senior Night for Brittiny Rhoades, Brooke Jacobs, Mollie Patton, Maddie Kill and Maggie Blackwell and I am sure they would appreciate the support.

* It is High School Night - there was an invitation that went out a while back to all HS coaches to bring their teams - all interested can contact Josh Waters at waters5@mailbox.sc.edu or (803) 777-5567 for the $1 tickets.

* Finally this is a special night for Shelley and I as we will be honoring Jill Darr Rowell at halftime who lost her battle with Leukemia this past spring. It is our goal to raise awareness for Leukemia/Lymphoma and let people know how they can help - we had no idea about what "we" could do until we were educated through Jill and Rich. Since we have been touched by this disease - we continue meet more people who have been affected - so this night is for everyone. Rich Rowell and his family will be here as well as Jill's family from Gainesville. I have attached a separate press release for you to use how you see fit. I know that Jill and Rich had many connections from living and coaching here in Columbia as well as attending USC so we hope to get the word out asap.

Thank you again for all your support this season. Hopefully this is not our last home game even though it ends the regular season. Shelley and I hope that we can thank you all in person sometime in the near future. Maybe you can share in a celebration this Friday - who knows ...

Jamie

Here are some details for this Friday's match:

Friday October 29th

South Carolina Women's Soccer Senior Day vs. Florida @ 7:00 P.M. Live on Sun Sports

* First 500 fans receive FREE "Go Gamecocks" Fan Scrolls

* Senior Day Ceremony

* Half-time presentation to former Gamecock great Jill Darr
Rowell's family.

* HS team night - contact Waters at waters5@mailbox.sc.edu or (803) 777-5567 for $1 tickets

* Post-Game Autograph Session

* Firehouse Trivia Question

* Kid's Inflatable Bounce House

* Cocky

* Hardee's On-Field Contest

* Goal and Corner Kick T-shirts

* Fan Reaction Song of the Game

Don't Forget:

* Group Tickets are only $1 with a group of 15 or more!

* To order group tickets please call 800.4SC.FANS or (803) 576-9189

Thank you all so much for your time and support of Gamecock Soccer and we hope to see you out at Stone Stadium this weekend!

Gamecocks face Gators for SEC championship
http://www.dailygamecock.com/sports/gamecocks-face-gators-for-sec-championship-1.1732299

I posted this on the College Forum...thought I'd repost here.

It is both an honor and humbling that Jamie and Shelley wanted to do this and I look forward to being there with my children and family on Friday. Jill would be embarrassed by the attention being placed on her, so one big reason for this "event" is to create awareness of the disease that struck Jill.

Did you know?
Every 4 minutes one person is diagnosed with a blood cancer.

An estimated 137,260 people in the United States will be diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma or myeloma in 2010. New cases of leukemia, Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma will account for 9.0 percent of the 1,529,560 new cancer cases diagnosed in the United States this year*.

Leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma will cause the deaths of an estimated 54,020 people in the United States this year. These blood cancers will account for nearly 9.5 percent of the deaths from cancer in 2010 based on the 569,490 total cancer-related deaths.

Every ten minutes, someone dies from a blood cancer. This statistic represents nearly 148 people each day, or more than six people every hour. Leukemia causes more deaths than any other cancer among children and young adults under the age of 20.

*Facts and statistics from Leukemia, Lymphoma, Myeloma Facts 2010-2011

What can you do to help?

Get on the National Bone Marrow Registry (www.bethematch.org)
Getting on the registry requires nothing more than a cheek swab. If you become a match, most transplants now are stem cell related so donating is little more than an apheresis type donation (no needle in the bum).
Matches run along ethnic lines. Currently minorities are in short supply on the registry. A caucasion of European decent is 75% likely to find a match while a person of African decent is only 22% likely to find a match. (We actually had found a match on the registry but never made it to transplant).

Give blood products
During Jill's 10 month treatment we used approximately 80 units of blood product in the form of packed red cells and platelets. Please consider giving blood or platelets.

Support organizations such as the Leukemia Lymphoma Soceity, bethematch.org, or any local group that funds research and development of cures. Here in Gainesville we have STOP!Children's Cancer and of course we have started our own foundation the Jill Darr Rowell Foundation (www.gnvcf.org is the parent organization giving us our 501c3 status).

Thanks again to the South Carolina Women's Soccer Team, the USC Athletics Department and the Smiths. Best of luck Friday.

As a 25-year survivor of Hodgkins Disease, I can tell you that, the good news is, many of these diseases are treatable and surviveable, thanks to research past, present and future.

Among athletes, survivors include NHL all-time great (and current Pittsburgh Penguins owner) Mario Lemieux and PGA golfer and former Ryder Cup captain Paul Azinger.

Thanks to all who fight the fight, however and wherever they can!

Absolutely Backscreen and that's awesome. They are making rapid advances in fighting these diseases. The technology involved now is amazing, espically the transplants that are handled on a micro level.

We unfortunately had an extreemly aggressive one that came back out of remission very quickly.