2013, started like any other year, I had two beautiful and healthy kids! By the end of January, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, her outlook looked good and we prepared her for surgery which found more tumor which then became another surgery. Her pathology came back clean margins and we all celebrated....2 days later pediatric cancer would join our lives as well! During the first months of the year, Kennedy stopped sleeping through the night, had a hard spot on her stomach which was misdiagnosed and started throwing up....on march 24, our beautiful 16 month old was diagnosed with stage 4 hepatoblastoma, liver cancer with metastasis in the lungs! 3 days later on Kennedy's 17 month birthday, she started what would be 4 cycles of chemo, 1 liver resection, 1 biliary reconstruction, and 2 more cycles of chemo, plus a central line placement and removal! Thank you to the amazing hem-oc team at albany med,especially her primary oncologist Dr Nepo, on August 28, Kennedy had her final chemo treatment and was deemed cancer free! During this time, i did what i had to do, i went on a leave of absence from work and became the primary caregiver for my daughter, who did amazingly well throughout all of this!!! On our first trip to outpatient clinic, I started seeing signs for St Baldrick's event 2013, and a plan went into motion, next year, I would be there and i would shave my head! if my beautiful red headed daughter, my beautiful curly haired mom, and thousands of other men, women, boys, and girls could lose their hair to this awful disease, I could shave my head for all of them and while doing so raise money to research cures and drugs for these beautiful kids affected by cancer!
So as I sit here with my beautiful again redheaded girl, I ask you to 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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