What seemed like a pulled muscle from being an active dancer turned out to be a parent’s worst nightmare. On June 10th 2023, our Kaylee was admitted to the hospital due to a broken femur but it was more than that. On June 19th, she was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma. I can still remember being in a room filled with her oncology team explaining to us the protocol that she will have to follow—it went in one ear and out the other as my husband and I were still processing the news that “Kaylee has cancer.” When they transferred her from the Pediatric to the Oncology Wing, our tears couldn’t stop flowing.  Since Kaylee was bedridden, we lived in the hospital during the first 10 weeks (out of 27 weeks) of her treatment while we waited for her surgery on September 12th, 2023. Kaylee’s surgery wasn’t as simple as we would've liked—she had a special type of surgery called Rotationplasty. Her surgeon removed the middle part of her leg, including the tumor. Her lower leg was reattached to her thigh, but it was rotated 180 degrees so that her ankle joint functions as her new knee joint. Kaylee will wear a prosthetic for the rest of her life.  We are very grateful for our family, our friends, kind strangers and many organizations that have helped our family during the most stressful time of our lives. Cancer is more than just chemotherapy treatments, dealing with the side effects, getting scans done, having blood drawn, having surgery and waiting for your child to ring the bell. Cancer will always be a part of our story, her story. We will have to see what the long term side effects of chemotherapy will have on Kaylee. She will still need to have monthly and yearly scans to make sure the cancer has not returned and she will always need to schedule appointments with her prosthetist to ensure that her prosthetic is in good condition.Did you know that childhood cancer research is underfunded by the federal government. Only 4% of the Federal government’s cancer research budget goes to pediatric cancer research. Yet it is the number 1 cause of death by disease in children. About 50% of all pediatric cancer research is funded by philanthropies supported by private donors, corporations and foundations. (Source: Center for Disease Control, National Cancer Institute, Coalition Against Childhood Cancer) Thank you for taking the time to read our story. Thank you for supporting me and the more than 300,000 kids worldwide who will be diagnosed with cancer this year. By sharing the gifts of your time, talent and money with the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, you're supporting research to give all kids with cancer a better chance for a cure.