Since Honored Kid Addison’s diagnosis five years ago, raising awareness of childhood cancer and helping others has become a family enterprise. Read on to see how the Kleinhans family is making an impact.
The Kleinhans family from left to right: Kip, Sarah, Madelene and Addison.
It all started on Easter in 2010, after the Kleinhans family arrived home from church. They pulled into their driveway and opened the front door to find that the Easter bunny had visited. Addison’s mom, Sarah, remembered the scene.
“There’s candy and eggs everywhere and he sat down, right on the ground, right outside the car, and he said, ‘My legs are too tired. I can’t get them. Can sis get them for me?’” she recalled. “I said to my husband, ‘This is a problem.’”
Addison was 5 years old. In the weeks before that Easter, he complained that he was tired but would bounce back to being the energetic kid that he was. The day after Easter, he woke up screaming that his jaw hurt.
“Now as a cancer parent, I look back and think, oh my gosh, he had every single red flag. You just don’t put everything together,” Sarah said.
The diagnosis
Addison receives blood at the hospital.
Addison had acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Sarah distinctly remembered her mother’s reaction to the news.
“She was 83 and she said to me, ‘He’s not going to live through this. What can we do now?’ Because she came from that generation where you got leukemia and she said they bought you some gifts and then sent you home and you were never seen again … So, in her eyes, you had no chance — this was a death sentence.”
Learn about the history of childhood cancer research >
As Sarah watched her mother’s amazement at Addison’s survival, she realized how important childhood cancer research is and how far it’s come. Yet she knows there’s so much more to be done.
“Now it’s time to focus on these other cancers that are down where we were, where leukemia was,” she said.
The treatment
Addison is now in remission, after enduring treatment every day for three years.
“Thirty-eight months out of a kid’s life is a long time. It was awful. That was the really hardest part for us,” Sarah said.
Addison holds a sign celebrating his first day off treatment.
Addison said that after he was diagnosed he didn’t know exactly what was happening to him. But he wasn’t scared — he was too young.
“Some of the kids who are older get really scared, and all I knew at the time was that I was getting a huge present increase,” he quipped.
But he does remember that his family was always nearby.
“For the first week, Mom was in the hospital room with me pretty much all the time,” he said. “That made me feel really good, because for some kids, they just have to be in there alone. No matter how much TV you get to watch, or Xbox, you still get lonely if you’re in a hospital room alone for like four hours. It gets really lonely.”
Addison’s mom leans over his hospital bed to give him a kiss.
The dynamic duo
Addison and his older sister, Madelene, now work to make sure that no kid feels alone.
Addison has given over 100 speeches about childhood cancer, all improvised, coming straight from the heart.
“I figured, someone has to tell people about what it’s like to be a child going through cancer treatment, so I’ll do it,” he said.
Addison speaks about childhood cancer.
Madelene remembers feeling sad, angry, and lonely when Addison was diagnosed. She knew that other kids like her felt the same way. Now she helps organize special trips for the siblings of kids with critical illnesses.
“We realized these kids don’t want to talk about their siblings. They want to have a day to themselves,” she said.
Madelene is dedicated to raising awareness of childhood cancer. It’s not just good for kids who have cancer, it’s good for their sisters and brothers, too.
“Because more people will really realize what’s going on and hopefully they’ll reach out to the siblings more and then the siblings will feel more loved,” Madelene said.
Follow along with Addison and Madelene and see how they’re fighting back against cancer on their family’s Facebook group, Help Addison Kick This Thing.
Shaving for a cure
After Addison’s diagnosis, the first brochures Sarah looked at were about St. Baldrick’s. Five years later, Addison was sitting in the barber’s chair and going bald by choice. He shaved for his friend Troy, who had relapsed and was going in for a bone marrow transplant the next day. Addison and Madelene also gave a speech.
“It was awesome,” Addison said.
Addison throws out his arms in excitement underneath a sign for the St. Baldrick’s head-shaving event he participated in.
The family met many new friends at the head-shaving event and Madelene recruited more cancer siblings to join her support group. St. Baldrick’s now has a permanent place on the busy family calendar.
“Addison absolutely loved it, and he was so proud of being bald,” Sarah said. “He was really sad when his hair grew back.”
Childhood cancer has been difficult and painful for the Kleinhans family, but it has also made them savor every moment and has led them on a path full of connections, friendships, and memories made because of the disease.
Addison wouldn’t change a thing.
“We get to do a lot of extraordinary stuff,” he said. “I think cancer was somewhat for the worse, but mostly for the better.”
Join Addison’s family in the fight against childhood cancer. Fund research today.
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