FOR CAITLYN AND THE KIDS As many of you know I’ve been growing my hair out for the last year or so and I have signed up to be a ‘shavee’ at the St. Baldrick’s nationwide head shaving fundraiser event for cancer research which is happening on March 8, 2013 in South Lake Tahoe. Please help me raise money for cancer research and go tohttp://www.stbaldricks.org type in 'John Ellis' in the search box and please, please, please donate. Any amount is greatly appreciated. I’m doing this because my sister’s daughter, Caitlyn, came into this world born with cancer. Here is a little of their story and a video about her and other families who deal with childhood cancer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3qYokAFe1Q On August 25th, 2010 my sister, Jennifer Drennan, gave birth to her second child, Caitlyn Dona Drennan, 7 weeks early after an emergency C-section in her home town of South Lake Tahoe. At 7 1/2 lbs it just seemed that she was ready to come out and join her family. We found out the next day that a quarter of her weight was due to a tumor on her spine in her low back which also explained why she couldn’t move her legs. We later found out that she not only had a sizable tumor but that her cancer was stage 4 and had spread to all of her spleen, half her liver and in her bone marrow. She almost bled out from her first of eight chemo treatments. Caitlyn is now 2 1/2 years old and is cancer free. She’s not without her challenges but she’s here and that’s what’s important. There are many reasons why I’m writing to ask for your help to raise money but will try to limit them. 1) The medical facilities in South Lake Tahoe were not well equipped to deal with Caitlyn’s condition and she so was airlifted to Sacramento by CALSTAR, the same company that Jen works for as a flight nurse. It became very clear that staying in Tahoe while Caitlyn was receiving treatment in Sacramento was not an option. As a parent, it’s hard to imagine that while your infant child’s life is hanging in the balance that you would need to worry about paying bills, finding a place to stay and dealing with insurance; accustomed things that seemed so trivial all of a sudden. But life doesn’t work that way and it moves on like a steamroller. This is where the Northern Nevada Children’s Cancer Fund (http://www.nvchildrenscancer.org) stepped in and helped. They provided my sister, her husband Jim and their first child Cameron over $4,000 in cash, gift cards and supplies to help them transition into their Sacramento life and not get steamrolled. As Jen said one time, “I want to raise money to pay it forward to the next family who’s experiencing their own August 27th”, the day in which Caitlyn was fully diagnosed. 2) Although Caitlyn’s form of cancer, neuroblastoma, is a mostly treatable form of cancer there are many other children who have less treatable forms of cancer. I remember driving up to Sacramento to visit with Caitlyn’s cousin Cooper that my mind was almost solely on my family. Of course, when you visit a children’s cancer ward, your family aren’t the only ones there. I remember being paranoid not to cough or sneeze and wash my hands compulsively while trying to look as natural and cool as possible. The truth is that, at first, it was the most heartbreaking place I’d ever been to. After a while, I’m not sure when, the heartbreak slowly turned into the utmost respect and admiration for the families, nurses, doctors and staff who were available for these children. Any donation is greatly appreciated and will help those in their utmost time of need. Warmly, Johnny