Families

Why I Organize a St. Baldrick’s Event, and Why You Should Too

by Krissy Gallagher
March 27, 2015

Krissy Gallagher, mom of 2012 Ambassador Austin, shares how childhood cancer research impacted their family, and why they’ve stayed involved with St. Baldrick’s through the years.

The Gallagher family at Krissy's St. Baldrick's event last year

Krissy and her husband, Mark, with their two boys, Austin and Braedan, at a St. Baldrick’s event last year.

In the 11 ½ years that Mark and I have been parents, we’ve heard the words “your child has cancer” on three separate occasions. And each time, it stunned us and terrified us and brought us to our knees.

But every day we know that we’re the lucky ones because we’ve never had to hear the words, “There’s nothing else we can do.”

And the reason for that is childhood cancer research. If Austin had been diagnosed with his rare cancer 20 years earlier than he was, I’m pretty confident he wouldn’t be here today. Pretty positive, in fact. But somebody 20 years ago funded the research that saved his life. Now it’s our turn to do the same for some other child, and some other mother, 20 years from now.

Learn more about Austin’s type of childhood cancer, Wilms tumor >

I don’t run our St. Baldrick’s event for Austin, although it certainly felt that way in the beginning. Today’s truth is that Austin does not have cancer and, at the risk of inviting bad luck, I don’t believe he ever will again.

Austin while he was in treatment for childhood cancer

Left: Austin when he was in treatment for childhood cancer. Right: Austin getting his head shaved at a St. Baldrick’s event last week. Donate on Austin’s head!

This St. Baldrick’s event — and all the money that comes with it — is for the next kid. The one whose name we don’t know yet. The one whose health updates don’t appear daily in our news feeds.

It’s for the parent who hasn’t ever had to hover over a hospital bed, watching the lines on a beeping machine. The parent who’s never had to write a CarePages update, who’s never imagined holding their dying child. The parent out there who is innocently watching their healthy child, worrying everyday worries, celebrating everyday successes, with no inkling of what’s to come.

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Because we were all that parent once. Every one of us who’s walked around the pediatric oncology floor with a cup of weak coffee and a dazed look in our eyes was once a normal parent, with normal expectations, normal fears, normal hopes.

So, until fewer and fewer parents have to hear, “Your child has cancer,” and until NO parents have to hear, “There’s nothing else we can do,” I will keep fighting this fight. I will keep running this event, begging for volunteers, pressuring people into parting with their hair, harassing them to raise more, more, more.

I will keep honoring our children, the ones we’ve lost and the ones we almost lost, alongside the many who are brave enough to sit in the barber’s chair and shave it all off for someone else. I will keep shouting from the rooftops that this is important and necessary and urgent. I will keep fighting.

And you can, too.

Every three minutes, another child is diagnosed with cancer — and YOU can help fund the research that could save their life. Get involved today.


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