What do you say when your daughter asks if the tumor in her leg is serious?

My daughter Jasmine was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma in her right fibula in 2014 and immediately began chemotherapy treatments in Hong Kong's Queen Mary Hospital.

What do you say when your daughter asks if she'll die during the surgery to remove her tumor?

Jasmine continued her treatments after the tumor was removed and returned to class to finish the 4th grade year with a brace on her  leg and no hair due to the multiple rounds of chemotherapy.

What do you say when your daughter asks if the cancer will come back?

Jasmine cherished every day of her 5th grade school year. Her hair grew long and curly, she learned to run again, played oboe in the band and secured life-long friends.

What do you say when your daughter asks why her shoulder and left ring finger hurt?

Jasmine's bone cancer returned, scattered through her body. We returned to New York in 2016, hoping Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center could find a cure that her Hong Kong doctors said was non-existent.

What do you say when your daughter asks if the doctors have a plan?

After another year of chemotherapy and removal of her left ring finger and right arm, there were no more options. The cancer had spread throughout her lungs and carbon dioxide was slowly shutting down her mind and body.

What did I say when my daughter asked me what I would do when she was gone?

I told her that we should enjoy the days we had left together and that I would never let her memory fade. I would fight to raise money for childhood cancer research so other children wouldn't have the same questions.

I'm shaving my head in solidarity with childhood cancer patients.

Please support me in my mission to cure childhood cancer.

The event at Jasmine's Middle School has been cancelled due to Covid-19, but I will shave on May 23rd along with other virtual shavees to #DFYchildhooldCancers.