Hello Everyone! Some of you may remember back in 2004 when I started my first fundraising event with St. Baldricks’ Foundation. My wife Alana and I had just celebrated the birth of our second daughter Hope after a very scary time when Alana was diagnosed with bladder cancer while pregnant with Hope. We were very fortunate – Hope was born healthy and happy, and Alana was able to successfully undergo cancer treatment after the birth and has remained cancer-free since then – almost ten years later! We realize that we are truly blessed. For this reason, I have kept a promise to myself to try to do something to “give back” in the fight against cancer to celebrate our good fortune. When I found out about St. Baldrick’s, it seemed like the perfect way to express my gratitude while doing a small part to hopefully eventually find better treatments, and ultimately a cure, for the many families out there who aren’t as lucky as ours – families who are dealing with childhood cancer. Recently, it came to my attention that one such family was right in the middle of my circle of friends. Jeffrey Wathen is a sales representative for Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, one of our suppliers of CPAP equipment at NAPS where I work. On Sept. 5th 2011, Jeffrey and his wife Julie were heading home from a labor day visit at the lake when their daughter Skylar, then 4 years old, had a seizure. Needless to say, this was the beginning of a journey that would change their lives forever. Upon being admitted to Kosair, a CT scan found a large mass in the right frontal lobe of her brain. A biopsy was performed and the initial diagnosis was a Type II Oligodendroglioma which is a cancerous non-resectable tumor. Over the next 9 months, Skylar was treated mainly for reoccurring seizures that would present every 4-5 days. In May 2012, Skylar underwent brain surgery to partially resect her tumor and hopefully impede anymore seizures from reoccurring. A new diagnosis was discovered thanks to the surgery, as pathology diagnosed her tumor officially as a Type II cancerous Astrocytoma. Thanks to the pharmaceutical and surgical intervention, Skylar has been seizure free since Aug. 16th 2012. However, due to the new diagnosis of Astrocytoma the Pedicatric Oncology team thought the best precautionary step would be to start chemotherapy to prevent her tumor from growing, as most Astrocytoma’s tend to do at some point. Currently, Skylar is a healthy 5 year old undergoing chemotherapy every Friday for the next 9 months. She has completed her 4th month of chemo and the tumor has not grown. As a parent of two daughters myself, I can say that for me there is no greater fear in the world than for something bad to happen to one of my kids. Any parent can identify with this, and probably those of us who do not have kids. There is nothing more unfair in life than a child having to deal with cancer and the often painful, difficult treatments for it. As you know, many kids end up losing their hair due to these treatments, and as a result many are self-conscious about and afraid of being teased by peers. This was one of the inspirations of St. Baldrick’s, which was started as a bet between a group of friends back in 2001. Since then St. Baldrick’s has grown into one of the leading fundraising efforts and charitable organizations for the battle against childhood cancer. This takes me to my “sales pitch” – how you can help me help Skylar, and all of these kids. First of all, since I have started up “Team Skylar”, I need some additional volunteers as “shavees” to join us in getting a free haircut, and maybe raising some dough, in Skylar’s honor. Don’t worry – they just buzz you with clippers – no one is actually taking a razor and shaving your head. It is the equivalent of a military buzz cut, and you will be surprised at how quickly it grows back. Trust me, no one can look any less aesthetically pleasing than I do with a buzzed head – I have been compared to “Bull” from the “Night Court” sitcom. One of the things that always impresses me about this event is the number of women and even young girls who go under the clippers. To all you guys out there, worrying about your appearance is no excuse with all these ladies participating, and besides, the kids getting treatment don’t have a choice in the matter. They need our support! If participating as a “shavee” is more than you want to take on, then please consider donating to this worthy cause in Skylar’s honor. It doesn’t have to be much – even $5.00 can go a long way if enough people donate.

Please support me with a donation to the St. Baldrick's Foundation. This volunteer-driven charity funds more in childhood cancer research grants than any organization except the U.S. government.

Your gift will give hope to infants, children, teens and young adults fighting childhood cancers. So when I ask for your support, I'm really asking you to support these kids. Thank you!

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