Alex's Coupons was started in October 1999 as Affiliates for
Alex, a collection of affiliate links to online stores.
The site was designed to raise money for my daughter Alex's
Christmas presents, while she underwent treatment for Acute
Myelogenous Leukemia. Friends and family did their online
shopping through the site and I received a small commission in
return from the stores. That Christmas Affiliates for Alex
raised nearly $400 for Alex's Christmas presents.
As
time went on I started to think of what I would like
Affiliates for Alex
to become in the future. I wanted it to be a place where people could
come to save money and get educated about Childhood Cancer. I also
wanted to be able to give back to the many childhood cancer
organizations that had been helping my family financially during Alex's
treatment. For a couple of years this remained just a dream because
I didn't have the time to devote to it, but in September 2001
our finances took a turn for the worse as Alex relapsed and my web design
business collapsed.
 Desperate
to pay the bills I re-launched Affiliates for Alex
as Alex's Coupons in December 2001. From the beginning we were able to offer
our visitors great
stores, coupons to save money and information on Childhood
Cancer, but it was still just a little site that wasn't making
enough money to allow us to donate
to others.
Thankfully by March 2005, income from the site had grown enough
that we were able to make our first donation to charity, a $1000
donation to
Starlight Children's Foundation. Over the last 4
years we've donated over $20,000 to childhood cancer charities,
including our most recent
$1000 donation to
Starlight on May 15, 2009.
 Some of you might say
that Coupons & Cancer are an odd fit, but I believe the only
way to make the public aware of the problem is to get the
information out there. Providing information on Childhood Cancer
to those who are looking for it is great, but it's a little like
"preaching to the choir". The only way to really
change things is to make people that aren't touched by Childhood
Cancer understand how serious the problem is. Maybe then we can start to make a difference.
On a personal note Alex
is now over 6 years post-2nd transplant and while side effects
of her six years of treatment remain, overall she is doing very
well. Visit Alex's
Place for a longer version of our story and updates...
Todd Martini
May 15, 2009
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