Survivors

Honored Kid Brooke was diagnosed with PH+ acute myeloid leukemia in 2015. She is now a survivor, but that doesn’t mean life is easy, ‘normal’ or back to a fraction of what it was like before cancer. Brooke explains…

(Left) Brooke during treatment after her 2015 diagnosis. (Right) Brooke poses for a photo during her first day back at school this year.

Cancer survivorship isn’t pretty. When I was diagnosed, I imagined that if I survived, my life after cancer would somehow be sweeter. Maybe I would appreciate the little things more or unlock some secret wisdom that would render me happier, more peaceful. This was believable through my first few rounds of chemo.

Then, I had a bone marrow transplant and became so ill that I spent five months inpatient post-transplant.

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Spunky, determined, and positive, 12-year-old Lily is a childhood cancer survivor in a family continually facing the disease. Read on for more of her inspirational story and see how this two-time shavee℠ is facing cancer survivorship head on and helping other kids like her.

Lily with her mom, Jennifer, during Lily’s 2014 shave.

For the Mallory family, hope is a curly-haired, 11-year-old girl named Lily.

In 2008 at the age of 3, Lily was diagnosed with two cancers — an adrenal cortical carcinoma and a sarcoma in her leg. Years later, her mom was diagnosed with two cancers too — breast cancer and sarcoma in her arm. The breast cancer has since metastasized to her bones, lungs and brain.

“There’s only so much you can do, but you could always be that one. You could be the Lily that defies all the odds,” said her mother, Jennifer.

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Sean Swarner has been on top of the world — in more ways than one. He defeated cancer twice and was the first cancer survivor to summit Mt. Everest, the world’s highest peak — a feat he accomplished with only one functioning lung. This is his amazing survivorship story.

Sean Swarner treks to the North Pole, becoming the first cancer survivor to complete the Explorers Grand Slam, a challenge to reach the North Pole, the South Pole and all of the Seven Summits.

Like most teens, Sean loved sports, hanging out with friends and the outdoors. But at the age of 13, that all changed when a knee injury sent him to the doctor. He was diagnosed with stage IV Hodgkin lymphoma and given three months to live.

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“Our son would not be with us today if it weren’t for St. Baldrick’s,” says Phineas’ dad, Carlos. Read on to see how research saved the little boy’s life.

VIDEO: Phineas’ Story >

On a mountain bike ride with a friend, 9-year-old Phineas was sailing along when he decided to take a risk and pedal over a bridge not meant for bicycle traffic. He wiped out in a big way.

But without so much as a single tear, he picked himself up, dusted himself off, and got back on the bike.

Compared to what this boy had been through two years before, that was nothing.

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Today is National Cancer Survivors Day and in celebration, we are bringing you the survivorship story of 2013 Ambassador Emily, who was diagnosed with osteosarcoma as a 16-year-old. Now nearing five years cancer free, she’s a huge advocate for kids’ cancer research. She wants to see all kids with cancer leave the childhood cancer world behind — for good. Read on for more about Emily, her treatment and its effects, and what it’s like to be a survivor.

Emily in 2013, during her treatment for cancer (left) and Emily last month (right) in New York City, which she’s made her home after graduating from New York University.

Emily lives in two worlds.

In one, she just graduated from New York University, is cruising the Adriatic Sea over the summer, and snagged her dream job in television production.

The other world is different.

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The March Advocate of the month is Kelly Forebaugh, a hero for kids with cancer who wears many hats — she’s the Director of Hero Funds and Memorials at St. Baldrick’s, mom to a cancer survivor, a staunch advocate for children’s cancer research, a shavee and a regular at Childhood Cancer Action Days on Capitol Hill. What inspires her to do all this? Read on to find out.

Kelly gets her head shaved by her son, Jackson, during their family’s 2016 St. Baldrick’s head-shaving event.

In 2005, Kelly Forebaugh’s son Jackson was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive childhood cancer in his kidneys, called a rhabdoid tumor of the kidney. He was just 15 months old.

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Childhood cancer survivor and budding chef, Petey Miceli, celebrates 5 years cancer free and recognizes Pi Day — the day we celebrate the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter — by sharing his story, along with his famous pizza pie recipe. (Pi Day is today, March 14 or 3.14 — get it? See, math can be fun! And delicious.)

Petey shows off his handcrafted pizza pies.

For 13-year-old Petey Miceli, his passion for cooking all started with an egg — and childhood cancer.

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Honored Kid Leon is one tough cookie. He’s fought childhood cancer not just once, but twice, and this time, Leon and his family hope it’s gone for good — thanks to an immunotherapy trial run by Leon’s buddy Dr. Daniel Lee, an investigator with the Stand Up to Cancer – St. Baldrick’s Dream Team*.

Leon and St. Baldrick’s researcher Dr. Daniel Lee share some smiles.

Everything changed one hot summer day in Colorado. Leon was spraying his cousins with a water gun and playing with the hose. Then the 9-year-old slipped on the slick deck and fell hard.

It was a badly bruised hip, said the doctors in the emergency room. It will heal. But it didn’t. Leon’s grandmother, Lisa, watched her normally active grandson walk gingerly and even resort to crutches.

Then she watched Leon get tired more quickly than a kid should. And then she watched him sleep. He slept and slept.

“And I knew then,” Lisa said. “I was like, ‘I think he’s sick again.’”

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Just in time for Valentine’s Day, your favorite lovebirds are back — 2012 Ambassador Sarah and her honey Patrick. You remember how it all began, almost 10 years ago — boy meets girl, girl fights cancer with boy by her side, boy pops the question. Now read on for the happiest of happy endings.

Photos courtesy of Chelsie Darling Photography

Patrick and I tied the knot on October 29, 2016. It started like any other good day, with Starbucks and reflection.

I kept thinking, ‘I am about to marry the man who had loved me through it all — through long distances, relapse, transplant, recovery, and finishing my degree. He has never failed to love me.’

I had no fears about our marriage standing the test of time, because we had already been through so much together. Our wedding day had been more than nine years in the making – and what a day it was!

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Being a teen or young adult can be tough. Being a teen or young adult who has survived cancer is even tougher. Read on for more about the unique challenges adolescent and young adult (AYA) survivors face, and how a St. Baldrick’s researcher is reaching out to help.

Psychologist Dr. Lisa Schwartz and a patient look at the health app that she’s using in her texting intervention study.

The teenage and young adult years are a time of discovery, a time to map out one’s identity, and to stretch into what could be. Those years are a coming-of-age dance, with a side of hormones, prom dates, and boundary pushing.

Sometimes it’s a little awkward, and maybe filled with more than a few mistakes. But as much as some of us wanted to skip right over them, those years are crucial.

But what happens when cancer is thrown into the mix?

That already rough developmental period gets rockier.

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