September 12th-- Childhood Cancer Awareness Day Event

Bailey & Austin--May 13, 2007...They had a special connection from the first time they met!

Two little angels Bailey( 8 years old) & Austin (1 year old). Both went to heaven in 2007. No child should every die from cancer. We need to find a cure!!!!



Brooke, Bryce and Blake with Austin's sisters Megan & Elise (photos taken by Austin's dad, Matt). Our families were able to get together in April 2009 and share our memories of our two precious little ones.

Family Picture April 26, 2009

It is hard to believe that it has almost been 2 years since our baby girl went to be with our Lord. Randy and I have taken that time to try to regroup, heal, and focus on our three other precious children. We look back at all that transpired during Bailey's four year battle against cancer and are amazed at how God watched over us. We feel blessed to still be standing. We know how many families don't survive these types of trials and believe that without all of your prayers and God's grace we wouldn't have made it through. God gave us the knowledge that we needed, when we needed it, but blinded us to so much that would have overwhelmed us at the time. I thank God that we were truly able to live day to day and enjoy the time that we had with Miss Bailey.

We both have had to learn to say "no" to things that we feel are stretching us too thin and are not where we feel our time is best spent. I think, in life, we all have our paths that we are meant to follow. We both have wanted to continue fighting for a cure for childhood cancer and reaching out to other families who face challenges similar to ours. In the last year, we slowly started to become involved in these areas. We had hoped to start a foundation in honor of Bailey at some point. Once again, God has placed amazing people in our path. To be able to become a part of Comforting Kids and have them embrace the idea of Bailey's Treasure Box was an answer to our prayers. (You have no idea how much money, time and effort are needed to start a non-profit organization.) Thank you so much for your huge hearts! You have never seen such hard working women.(even in heels!ha!ha!) Comforting Kids just had their 2nd annual fundraiser which was once again very successful thanks to our great community.

Another exciting bit of news that I want to tell you about is the partnership between NCLUSD's After-School Program, Bailey's Treasure Box, and Gold Rush Cure. We are going to be working with the kids to get them involved in raising awareness and funds for our local children with long-term illnesses and for Childhood Cancer Research. Both Randy and I are still approached by kids who want to either talk about Bailey, ask questions about her disease or let us know how she impacted their lives. We are excited to harness this interest and put it towards helping others in our community.

Okay, so here is our latest plan. On Thursday, as Dean Harris (he has been so supportive) was interviewing me for a story he is doing about September being Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, he asked me if there were any events planned in the area. I told him none that I knew of. Fast forward to Friday around 2:15 pm right before I need to pick up the kids…I have this thought of “why not have one here in Newman?!”. I make a few calls and quick visits and guess what…we are having an event! (Thanks for your help Kristal!) So here is some sketchy info…I will keep you posted as things get finalized. We will be having a “Childhood Cancer Awareness Day” on September 12th @ Pioneer Park. We are hoping to have a “Concert in the Park” with hotdogs, chips, water, and information about Childhood Cancer, Bailey’s Treasure Box, and Gold Rush Cure. I am in the process of contacting some local bands and musicians to see if they would like to volunteer their time to come out and play at our event. If any of you would like to help please let me know. It is going to be a simple event this year. I didn’t want to wait another year to do this. I hope you’ll be able to come. Bring your blankets and chairs!

Thanks,

Kathy and Randy

Candlelighters' Statistics about Childhood Cancer

I often wonder what she was thinking about. This was just a couple of weeks before her transplant. (3 1/2 years since her battle began)

Hi,

Thanks to all of you for once again supporting our family by signing the petitions!!!! You're awesome! Read some of the messages. So many people are touched by cancer. Until people like you and me get involved and make our voices heard, things are not going to change for these precious children or anyone with cancer. We need the masses to stand up and finally say, "this is not acceptable". Even the doctors agree that not enough is being done but their hands are tied. Without money to fund research, we will remain at a stand still with childhood cancer. Despite very aggressive therapies that approach the limits of tolerability for the child, the overall survival rate for childhood cancer has remained unchanged since 1998. One in four children who are diagnosed with cancer in the U.S. will die within five years of their diagnosis, and 30% of those that do survive have severe side effects, including cognitive deficits, kidney failure, heart failure, and secondary cancers caused from the traditional toxic treatments. Because of the high level of toxicity associated with many current treatments and the plateau in survivorship rates, future success is dependent upon the development of new therapeutic approaches.

The last couple of days I have spent a lot of time on different sites collecting information and statistics about childhood cancer. I am including a link to Candlelighters that includes information that nobody talks about concerning childhood cancer. Candlelighters’ mission is to address the needs of families through programs that emphasize information, advocacy, awareness, and research. Please take a moment to visit this site...watch the short video. Then do something! Tell a friend, send out an email, make a donation...just talk. If you haven't forwarded the petition from my last blog...please do. http://www.candlelighters.org/Research/WhyResearchisNeeded/tabid/408/Default.aspx.

For too long, no one has wanted to talk about kid's having cancer much less dying from it. I always felt lucky that Bailey had the "good cancer" because Standard Risk Leukemia (ALL) has an 85 % cure rate and because she responded so well to her therapy statistically...she should never have relapsed. On the other hand, I know some children who, statistically speaking, shouldn't be here and they still are. My point is...we need more research specifically targeting pediatric cancer because the fact that over 20% of kids who get cancer...die from it. Others face a life time of health issues. United...we can make a difference. Please join us in eliminating childhood cancer, the #1 killer of our children by disease.

Thank you,

Kathy and family

Help Us Raise Awareness

This is right before what we thought was going to be her "last bone marrow aspiration and spinal". Our life was finally going to be normal again after two years of uncertainty. Only 10 months later, she relapsed.

For the sake of Pediatric Cancer Awareness I am now officially becoming a blogger!

Our family has become involved with two non-profit organizations that are extremely important to us. The first is called, "Comforting Kids Foundation". www.comfortingkids.org A local group of amazing people started this non-profit organization in order to raise funds for local hospital's "Child Life Programs". The Child Life Staff are the wonderful people who help to distract, entertain, and comfort the children while they are in hospital. All of the TV’s, DVD’s, video games, toys, prizes, arts & crafts, teddy bears, etc. that are used at the hospitals are donated by outside sources. Last year Comforting Kids donated a van full of items that Childrens Hospital of Central California in Madera had requested, in honor of our precious Bailey. After seeing the passion and commitment of this foundation’s board members & supporters, I knew I wanted to be a part of it. I had an idea that involved reaching out to our local Westside children (Newman, Gustine, Patterson, Hilmar, etc.) who face long-term illnesses. The group loved the idea and “Bailey’s Treasure Box” became a part of Comforting Kids and an answer to my prayers. This is a perfect tribute to the life that Bailey lived during her four-year battle with cancer. She loved to give special treasures and treats to those precious children who she may have known for many months or just met that day. Check out their website and see the great things they are doing. Let me know if you want to get involved.

The second organization is called Gold Rush Cure. www.goldrushcure.org (It will be up in Mid-September) and is extremely important to us because 100% of the donations will go to pediatric cancer research and awareness. It was started by Sandy & Gary Barker from Laguna Niguel. Their son Christian passed away in Dec 2007 after receiving two bone marrow transplants. We met them up in Seattle and became good friends. She has already gone back to Washington D.C. five times to lobby for more funding for pediatric cancer because it is so underfunded.

I wanted to share a few statistics with you that no one wants to talk hear. “My Mission” is to get people talking because that will bring…awareness…change….cure!!!! Please share this information with others!

-Childhood cancer is the #1 killer disease of our children, more than from asthma, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, congenital anomalies, and pediatric AIDS combined

- 1 in 300 children will be diagnosed with cancer before age 20

- Each year 3,000 children die, and 35,000+ are in treatment

- The National Cancer Institute's (NCI) federal budget was $4.6 billion. Of that, breast cancer received 12%, prostate cancer received 7%, and all 12 major groups of pediatric cancers combined received less than 3%.

- Two-thirds of children who do survive cancer face at least one chronic health condition because of the amount of chemo they receive (3-4 times what an adults receives). One quarter of survivors face a late-effect from treatment that is classified as severe or life-threatening. Late-effects of treatment can include heart damage, second cancers, lung damage, infertility, cognitive impairment, growth deficits, hearing loss, and more. It is becoming increasingly apparent that childhood cancer "is for life." Late effects from either the disease process or aggressive treatment regimens are given at a time of life when children have growing bodies and developing brains. As such, patterns of late-effects include disabilities, chronic health conditions, and even subsequent battles with additional cancer. It is imperative that all survivors of childhood cancer receive on-going monitoring and continued physical and psychosocial care throughout their adult lives.

You can make a difference. You can help. Please go onto the following website and sign a petition that will help bring more awareness and hopefully funding for pediatric cancer. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/curechildhoodcancer Please sign and pass it on.

Please check back because we have more to share with you. I will try to post updates at least once a week to let you know what is going on. Next post, I will give you an update on our family and add some pictures too.

God bless all of you,

Kathy and family

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month

I have been wanting to do this for quite awhile. Now with September approaching us and my passion to get the word out about childhood cancer, it just seemed like it was finally time to take the next step and set up this blog. I have become involved with two great organizations that I will be sharing with you next time. Please check back soon and help me spread the word about the need for more funding for childhood cancer. We need to find a cure...soon!

God Bless,

Kathy