No one ever really thinks they will be closely affected by childhood cancer. We never thought we would either until last July when Clarkie was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer that only affects 250 people a year. After struggling with leg pain throughout his spring lacrosse season, we finally pushed for an MRI. It showed a mass in his upper right femur. After a long few weeks of waiting we finally received the diagnosis. Clarkie is currently undergoing chemotherapy, and will hopefully finish before the summer. He will have a total of 17, 2 week chemo cycles. In November he had his surgery in which the top half of his femur was removed and was replaced with a titanium prosthesis and donor bone. Clarkie has amazed us each and every day with his strength, positivity, sense of humor and resilience. Right now he knows that his job is to get well. A good friend and cancer survivor, Matt Smalley, told Clarkie that he needs to battle through his treatments, stay strong, stay positive, be healthy and do his best to achieve the small victories throughout this process. We have no doubt that is what he’ll do. Each year in the United States, approximately 13,500 children and adolescents 18 and under are diagnosed with cancer. That’s more than a classroom of kids a day. According to the American Association for Cancer Research, in the last 20 years, the FDA has only approved two pediatric cancer drugs. So clearly, childhood cancer research is extremely underfunded. Please consider donating to our team and better yet, join us on March 15th for St. Baldrick’s Day. Come have some fun and help us do our part to conquer childhood cancers. Every dollar makes a difference for the thousands of infants, children, teens, and young adults fighting childhood cancers.