7 Shavees Share Their Shaving Stories [PHOTO ESSAY]
Shave your head for kids with cancer. Be a shavee℠.
Photos courtesy of Matt Janson Photography. See more of his work at mattjanson.com.
Here at St. Baldrick’s, we have the privilege of seeing a lot of beautiful bald heads. Whether it’s a #baldselfie on Facebook or a collection of inspiring event photos, we know that each naked noggin represents something wonderful: more funds raised for lifesaving childhood cancer research.
At the same time, a head shaved for St. Baldrick’s is a bold symbol that our shavees stand behind kids with cancer, who so often lose their hair during cancer treatment. Shavees let these kids know that they are not alone, that they have a friend in the fight against childhood cancers.
Photographer Matt Janson captured the shavee spirit when he set up a portrait studio at the Grand Junction, Colorado, head-shaving event in June. His second year at the event, Matt said it was the shavees themselves that drew him to St. Baldrick’s for another year.
“I’ve never been a part of any group that’s been able to take something so painful and turn it into a day of love, support, and remembrance,” Matt said. “I can’t even begin to describe how infectiously positive everyone is at the event.”
Here’s a look at a few of Matt’s portraits along with a few words from the shavees about what it means to be a shavee and why they believe childhood cancer research is a cause worth losing hair over.
‘One Step Closer’: Emily Survives Cancer and Shaves for a Cure
After trying everything to cure her cancer, Emily was given three months to live. Then something amazing happened — her cancer went away. Read Emily’s survival story and learn why she shaves her head to raise money for childhood cancer research. (You can be a shavee℠, too!)
Emily with two of her nurses in 2008.
At the age of 11, I was diagnosed with late-stage osteosarcoma of the spine and ribs. As is typical with bone cancers, I had been having pain for a couple of months. But it wasn’t until I injured my knee rollerskating and went completely paralyzed from the waist down that doctors found a grapefruit-sized tumor that had grown into four ribs, around my spine, and into my lungs.
They found it with a simple x-ray.
Boston Cannons Lacrosse Players Face Off Against Childhood Cancer
Members of the Boston Cannons lacrosse team will be shaving their heads for children’s cancer research on August 9 and competing to see who can raise the most money. Donate to their efforts or sign up to shave your head with them!
Members of the Boston Cannons lacrosse team are holding a St. Baldrick’s Foundation head-shaving event on August 9.
From June 21 through August 9, the Boston Cannons are taking the fight to childhood cancer with a fundraiser for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation.
Team members Jack Reid, Matt Smalley, Jordan Burke, Brodie Merrill, Eric Hagarty, and head coach John Tucker will be shaving their heads in front of their fans at the August 9 home game. Until then, these six members are competing to see who can raise the most money, with the team as a whole looking to raise $5,000 for children’s cancer research.
St. Baldrick’s Researcher Developing New Targeted Therapies for Ewing Sarcoma
Your donation to St. Baldrick’s supports pediatric cancer research. Donate now.
There are things we can do that will increase our risk for cancer later in life, like tanning and smoking cigarettes. But childhood cancer is a different story.Pediatric cancers are caused by genetic mutations. “However, since these mutations are unique to pediatric cancer, unique drugs need to be developed to treat these cancers,” explains Patrick Grohar, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of pediatric hematology-oncology at Vanderbilt University and a St. Baldrick’s research grant recipient.
Dr. Grohar is working to develop new drugs that target one particular mutation found in Ewing sarcoma tumors, ultimately yielding more effective and less toxic treatments for this form of childhood cancer.
Crossing Borders to Cure Childhood Cancer: Rolando’s Story
Rolando was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma when he was 13. On doctors’ recommendations, Rolando and his family moved from Cuba to the United States to seek treatment.
Ask a parent of a child with cancer and they’ll tell you the same thing. Often, parents of children with cancer face these difficult questions daily, and the answers are never simple: How can I do more for my child? How can I be sure they are getting the best treatments available to them? How do I balance their needs with the needs of the rest of my family?
Tamara Peñaranda is one parent who can tell you firsthand about the sacrifices her family has made for her son, Rolando — sacrifices that, in the end, were a small price to pay for her son’s health and happiness.
Pro Football Rivals Go ‘Head-to-Head’ to Tackle Childhood Cancer
Washington wide receiver, Pierre Garcon, and New York linebacker, Mark Herzlich, go head-to-head to see who can raise the most money for childhood cancer research.
The two players, and division foes, will engage in a month-long competition to see who can raise the most money for childhood cancer research. The effort comes with a kicker — the winner gets to shave the other guy’s head.
The Wahl Head-to-Head Challenge runs from September 25, 2013 through November 12, 2013. Fans and supporters can ensure their player is the one holding the clipper in the end by clicking the donate button for either Mark Herzlich or Pierre Garcon. The player with the most money raised will shave the other player’s head during a live event later this season.
Targeted Gene Therapy Could Yield New Treatments for Ewing Sarcoma
Dr. Choo is also a St. Baldrick’s Fellow, having received a two-year, $123,149 grant for her pediatric oncology research focused on Ewing sarcoma, a bone and soft tissue cancer that occurs in adolescents and young adults.
46 Mommas Then and Now: Curing Kids’ Cancer Together
The first 46 Mommas St. Baldrick’s event in 2010.
Tiffany’s daughter, Miranda, in 2007, shortly before she was diagnosed with childhood cancer; Miranda during treatment.
As the months of treatment passed, just getting through each day was challenging: Miranda’s body didn’t process all the antibiotics she got to help fight infection, her kidneys took a serious beating, she stopped eating, didn’t tolerate a feeding tube in her nose. I watched as my daughter’s little body shrank smaller and smaller as she lost one-third of her weight. I feared that the chemo fighting the cancer was going to kill her instead.
It was hard for to me rejoice when the doctor told me that, after three rounds of chemo, the tumor had shrunk by 75%, because I felt my baby was dying before my eyes.
Immunogenomics to Create New Therapies for High-Risk Childhood Cancers
Formerly known as the St. Baldrick’s – Stand Up to Cancer Pediatric Cancer Dream Team, this team is now the St. Baldrick’s EPICC Team (Empowering Pediatric Immunotherapies for Childhood Cancer).
The Dream Team, funded by Stand Up 2 Cancer and the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, aims to establish genomics-based immunotherapy as the second revolution in childhood cancer. The following is adapted from the Dream Team’s own summary of its proposal.
Curative chemotherapy for cancer was first realized in children. Survival rates for many of the common cancers in children improved dramatically through the last part of the 20th century. However, those cure rates have plateaued since the 1990s, and for some childhood cancers, we have seen little to no improvements.
Announcing the Stand Up To Cancer – St. Baldrick’s Pediatric Cancer Dream Team [VIDEO]
Formerly known as the St. Baldrick’s – Stand Up to Cancer Pediatric Cancer Dream Team, this team is now the St. Baldrick’s EPICC Team (Empowering Pediatric Immunotherapies for Childhood Cancer).
I wish you could have been with us in the room when the first pediatric cancer Dream Team was announced, to be funded by the partnership of the St. Baldrick’s Foundation and Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C).From a long list of innovative “big ideas,” the scientific reviewers representing both funding organizations had chosen the top four to submit detailed proposals. The experts agreed that any of these would be great investments, but for a grant of $14.5 million over four years, only one could be chosen.
The suspense ended with an enthusiastic round of applause when the winning Dream Team was announced at a reception tonight at the annual meeting of the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR). The evening’s emcee was actor Kyle MacLachlan, and speakers included Nobel Laureate Dr. Philip Sharp, St. Baldrick’s CEO Kathleen Ruddy, and 10-year-old cancer survivor Emma W. and her parents.
And the award goes to:
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