In January 2005, I lost my dad to cancer. I was 8. March of that year was the first time I participated in St. Baldrick's and I have been shaving my head ever since.
If you've known me for a while then you already know what that is and know that it's a big part of my life. But for those of you that don't know, St. Baldrick's is an organization that funds research to find a cure for childhood cancer. This is done mainly by participants like me who raise money and then shave their head to stand in solidarity with the kids who often lose their hair during chemotherapy.
As you can probably imagine, for an 8-year-old who always had long, curly hair (or just a little shorter and spiky), the idea of shaving off all my hair made me nervous and there were multiple points where I considered backing out. But I knew my hair would grow back, something the children who lost theirs can unfortunately not always say, and I could always wear a hat for a few weeks. It was also the only thing 8-year-old me could think of to do to honor my dad.
I would like to ask you to help me honor him and consider donating for my 16th year participating. Here are some ways your money helps:
- $50 provides two hours of a clinical trial, often a child’s best hope for a cure
- $100 covers a student to work in a pediatric oncology research lab for one week
- $250 allows for ten hours of research to improve patient and survivor quality of life
- $1,000 helps pay for one child to be treated on a clinical trial, often their best hope for a cure
- Over the past 15 years, St. Baldrick’s has funded more than $282 million towards 1,506 research grants across 29 countries to find cures for kids with cancer
Since I started back in 2005, I have personally raised over $19,370. With your help, I can break over $20,000 this year. Of course I don't expect everyone to donate as much as those amounts mentioned above, but if just 5 people donate $10, that's already one clinical trial for a child.
Please try and pass this on to other family and friends to help out this cause.
Thank you.
