Hello, bring on the 2019 year and my passion for a wonderful organization named St. Baldrick's! Yet another year of fund raising for St. Baldrick's is here and I am excited to say that last year, the "Melting Pot for Cancer" which is the small team that I started in 2013, came in 4th place of 44 teams participating in the one event we attended in Englewood, Colorado this past March. This will be my 6th year serving as our team captain which is such an honor and I appreciate every one of the members that has joined our team. We have gained a few new members each year and last year we had 16 people collecting donations/shaving for our team. I am not shaving my head this year but have 3 times in the past. Over the past 5 years as a team, we have raised $95,648 and of that, I raised $27,807. Last year, I was in 18th place of 314 people who raised money for the Slattery's location alone.
Why am I doing this again you may be asking? I'm doing it to continue to help provide funding to the Physicians in our department who are doing research to find new treatment options and cures for our patients! To have our team in the top 5 teams was pretty exciting and showed a ton of hard work from each member!
I see one of the Physicians, whose research is funded by this organization, many times each month. It brings it so close to home to know that the money I help raise goes to brilliant Physician Researchers in MY department. I had a woman from St. Baldrick's call me last year and she was from the St. Baldrick's organization at a higher level. She was in Denver and wanted to know if I would like to come to Children's Hospital Colorado for a tour of the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders to meet some of the Physicians that receive grants from St. Baldrick's. I told her I could give her the tour because I am lucky enough to work in the department she wanted to show me.
On a personal level, last year I attended the Make A Wish gala with my husband and some of the wonderful people I work with in my department. When I arrived, I quickly saw the mom of one of my Angels. This Angel passed away a 2 years ago in December and prior to his passing, he had been accepted to CU where he hoped to become an Oncology Physician one day. I was there that evening to celebrate and support one of my off therapy patients who was asked by Make A Wish to sing on stage that evening with The Fray. That evening was such an emotional night to say the least. I shed tears of joy as I saw how healthy and radiant my beautiful patient was that evening and how excited she was to be on stage. I also shed tears of sorrow with my Angel's mom because he was supposed to be there dancing with the rest of his dance team that evening. Every year I continue to celebrate all the patients who have completed therapy and are now in remission in addition to grieving the patients who have passed away. I have attended way too many funerals and in September, I was asked to do the eulogy for one of my favorite patients who was only 5 years old when he died. Life should not be about attending funerals for kids who have passed away and watching a parent crumble at their child's casket!
After reading this, please consider a donation to my team and ultimately to St. Baldrick's. My hope is to continue to support the research so we have future options to help treat my courageous patients. I am tired of standing with the parents of so many of my Angels and saying, "I know he/she is here with us." They need to physically be here with us and healthy so we can continue to celebrate life and sing with whoever we want to sing with. My love to all my Angels and every one of my patients who is currently fighting the fight and to those who have won!!! Let's continue to provide options to our patients so we never have to say, "we have used all of our options." Thank you for your support again this year! I fight for my patients every day but need the funding to support what we all do within my department.
