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. I had just turned 12 in June, was enjoying the beginning of summer break but really excited for the next school year.  I was going into 6th grade, excited about joining band and really looking forward to starting middle school.  A month after my birthday I went to urgent care for what we thought was just a spider bite.  The doctor at the urgent care clinic told us she didn't think it was a spider bite, asked where we lived and which ER were we closest to, Baptist or OU Children's. Things started to get serious real quick. She sent us to the ER with a note stating I needed to be seen ASAP and said she was calling them and that they would be expecting me and would take me straight back.  We arrived at Baptist ER, handed the triage nurse the note and they pretty much took us back immediately.  Doctors and nurses came in right away and started drawing blood and taking x-rays. They came back in just a short while later and told us they thought I had Lymphoma and that I was very sick and needed to be transferred via ambulance to OU Children's Hospital across town. We were all in shock and everything started happening really fast. I got to Children’s and they drew more blood, took more x-rays and did some ultrasounds. A few hours later they told us it was worse than they initially thought.  It wasn't Lymphoma, it was actually a rare and aggressive form of Pediatric AML Leukemia. The average age for patients diagnosed with the kind of AML Leukemia I have is 69...not 12. I had a Lumbar puncture and bone marrow biopsy right away and immediately started chemo. Between rounds one and two of my induction rounds It's been 71 days between the start of induction chemo and the start of intensification chemo and I've been in the hospital all but 9 days. I just started my first of three rounds of Intensification Chemotherapy. I'm blessed with an amazing support group of family and friends who remind me every day I'm not in this fight alone.