Please introduce yourself!

[Anissa Mayhew]

Please share whatever you want about yourself and your child, family or situation.

Don't forget to add a website if you have one.

[Holly Wirth]

My name is Holly and I am the proud mother to Samuel and Connor, twins age 9 and my beautiful angel Paige. To my husband David and I, our children are our life. We love having the privilege of being their parents.
Paige was diagnosed June 30, 2004 with a brainstem glioblastoma multiforme tumor (GBM). She was only 16 months old. Just days before diagnosis, she was a happy, playful, Daddy's Girl toddler. She was initially treated at All Childrens Hospital and then at Duke University. After a short 3 1/2 month battle, Paige was healed in heaven.
She is forever our baby Paige, very loved and deeply missed.
Ever since her passing, our family has tried to remain connected with other families battling cancer. We find comfort in these friendships and hope when can help others in their journey.

[Holly Jo Covais]

Hi! My name is Holly Jo. I am an exhausted working mother to Elizabeth (7) and Sean (3). I own a smal consignment store so that my hours are flexible and I can spend a lot of time with the family. My husband is Toby. He works nights as a detention deputy at the Orien Road Jail. We live in Tampa Fl.

Sean was diagnosed with ALL on September 7, 2007. He was sick for about a month before we had a correct diagnosis. He went from allergies to a cold to bronchitis to scarlett fever to cancer in 30 days. The only correct diagnosis was Leukemia. The others were false.

He is in his second round of maintennance now, but we are not going well. Hopefully he will recover and move on. We should be done with treatment somewhere around his 6th birthday.

It is new and scary, it is tiring and stressful, it is pain and tears, but it is the life we live.

We pray that soon, it will be just a bad memory.

[Christy Reichert]

My name is Christy, I live in Seffner, Fl. I am a mother of 3 wonderful children: Ashley (14), Jimmy (9), and Lindsey (8).
Jimmy was diagnosed March 2003. He did 2 years of standard treatment when a spinal tap came back CNS postive. He started another 2 years of treatment that included radiation to his head and spine. In December 2007 He had his port removed. March 2008 He was rediagnosed with ALL and Tecticular cancer. We are trying to get to transplant but are having trouble due to asprilligous in the lungs and relapes again. We are doing an experiemental protocol trying to get him in remisson.
His site is caringbridge- jimmyreichert

[Monique Gebeline]

Hello everyone. My name is Monique. I live in Philadelphia, Pa. I will be 36 years old on Sunday. I am married, My husband is Paul and he is 34 today :) We have 4 children. My daughter Julianna is 15, Paul is 7, and Jonathan is 4. Our first born son, Frankie, was diagnosed with a Malignant Peripheral Nerve Sheath Tumor (in his spine) on July 24, 2003, and fought for 4 years through various chemotherapy treatments, radiation, and surgeries until he passed away, at home surrounded by family, on March 28, 2007. He was only 8 years old. He would have turned 9 on January 7th of this year.

Our experience has inspired us to create Frankie's Fight, a non profit foundation that financially and emotionally assists families with children that have cancer. You can read about Frankie's Fight at www.frankiesfight.org.

I am always willing to speak with other families that are going through what I have gone through. Please feel free to conact me anytime.

Monique

[Jammie Bridges]

Hi ,

My name is Jammie. I have two daughters. Hailee is four years old and Maddie is three years old.
We live in Tampa,Florida.


Maddie was diagnosed in July of 2007 with Aveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma. It is a very rare soft tissue
cancer. She had surgery to remove the tumor. She also had six weeks of proton theraphy. In addition she had one year of chemo.

We just finished her last round of chemo a few weeks ago, I feel that the hardest part of all of this is watching our children experience so much pain. I'm so thankful the chemo is over. I just want her to feel good again.

Now she will have scans done every three months for the first year.

I have to say how touched we are by all of the friends and staff we have met at the Childrens Cancer
Center. It brings me so much joy to see my girls laugh and have such a good time. Many times I have
walked in the door feeling like I was going to just drop. By the time we left I felt much stronger. The love and compassion from the other Moms and all of the staff is priceless. Everyone there has had
a huge part in helping us get through this.

Maddie is doing well now.

[Dennis Russo]

Hello all, My name is Dennis Russo and my wife's name is Theresa. Our 2 1/2 year old daughter Ryleigh was diagnosed with pre-b ALL Leukemia the day after Memorial Day, 2008. My wife was 8 months pregnant at the time, with our second child. We spent most of June at All children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, FL with Ryleigh and our baby boy was to be induced on June 20th. On June 18th Ryleigh hit her first major bump in her treatment when she was complaining of stomach pains. We went to the ER with fever and there they ordered an x-ray of her abdominal cavity. The result showed something was wrong and she was rushed into emergency abdominal surgery. What could have been the life threating news came back as a ruptured appendix.
The next day her brother, Reece, was born with a condition called Persistant Pulmonary Hypertension. This is a condition which the lungs don't function properly and is very life threatening. But 3 weeks later the good people at All Childrens fixed him up and he is back home with little notice that anything was ever wrong with him.
So that is the short version of our Summer of '08. You can read the unabridged version on our Care Pages web page @ www.carepages.com, under the name "RainbowsandButterflies"

I am a high school teacher and my wife is now a stay at home mom. She had just finished her degree to become an elementary school teacher this fall, but our plans got changed after Ryleigh's diagnosis. Theresa was born and raised here in St. Pete and I am from New Jersey.
So that's a little bit about us.
We have a very large family support system around the Tampa Bay Area which has been a saving grace during this tough time for our family. We are interested in making connections with families in similar situations and to educate people about childhood cancers.

[Tina Rozmeski]

My name is Tina Rozmeski. My son Zackary is 6 years old. On July 4th, 2007 he was diagnosed with T-Cell ALL. He started maintenance treatment in mid March of 2008. We are treated at All Childrens Hospital and mainly visit our doctors at the Tampa satelite clinic. Zack is still trying to find his rythm in maintenance ... as it seems any little bug finds him and wipes out his counts. We are looking forward to going to school next year and putting the pieces of our lives back together.

[Mary Lynn Kesler]

My name is Mary Lynn. I have been married almost 18 years to Danny Kesler. We have 3 kids: Arielle will be 15 in October and is starting high school on August 18th, Daniel (Dano) is 12 and in middle school and Sierra turned 9 on February 11th. Little did I know that would be her last birthday. Sierra was diagnosed with Acute Lymphobastic Leukemia on December 28, 2005 finished her 2 1/2 years of treatment, 2 weeks off treatment on March 29, 2008 we got the heartbreaking news that she had relapsed. On May 3, 2008 she passed away. We are completely devastated but know that one day we will see her soon.

[Angie Albonico]

My name is Angie Albonico, married to Robert Albonico. It will be 9yrs this October. (Feels like a lot longer). We live in S. St Pete, FL. I am a mother of 3. My daughter Taea, she is 8 and getting ready to start 3 grade. My son Micah who just turned 2 in June. My son Jarek who is 6 mths. The last year or so has been really hard. First, Jarek was a twin. The other twin passed away in utero early on. Things went down hill from then. My daughter had 2 different surgeries. She had both of her arches in her feet reconstructed. Thank God she is doing well from that. What a sweet girl. My son Micah has down syndrome and was diagnosed with AML on 11-6-07. Long story but he has been "off treatment" since May. He seems to be doing well so far. We go to oncology once a month for cbc's. (All Children's) Last appt his counts were completly recovered. Three wks after having Jarek, I ended up in the hospital having to get my gall bladder removed. Again, Long story, but I have to have another out patient surgery this Friday. (Please pray for me). Micah had his last bone marrow aspirate and his broviac removed on June 11. Well, tradgedy striked again. That night my mom fell and broke her hip. She passed away the next day. My mom was all the family I have ever had. I feel so lost without her. Anyway, I have rambled long enough. We do have a carepage, if you want to read our whole story. God Bless. www.carepages.com micahsfight

[AJs Dad]

I am writing today because we have a common enemy, childhood cancer.  My name is AJ's Dad.  This is AJ.

And I started the Cure Childhood Cancer Petition because I, like many of you, am frustrated at the sheer lack of awareness and funding for childhood cancer.  The idea behind the petition is simple; collect one million signatures in support of creating a network TV special devoted solely to childhood cancer.  It's a story you don't hear (and I am not optimistic you will hear much on the StandUp2Cancer show either).  Yet it impacts 1 in 300 of our children, and is the #1 killer disease of our kids.  During the show we will promote a book, with all proceeds going to CureSearch.  It will actually be a collection of stories of how our children faced this disease, stared it down, inspired those around them, and displayed courage and grace no matter what.  How they changed people.  Like me.  My AJ, my best friend in the whole world, was only 14 years old when he left us on January 5, 2008.  And now our world will never be the same.

Since we started the Petition it continues to gain momentum and attention:

1. We have nearly 13,000 signatures
2. We have been written about by CureSearch (click for story)
3. We have been written about by LIVESTRONG (click for story)
4. We have been written about by Alex's Lemonade Stands (click for story)
5. The Chief of Pediatric Oncology at Texas Children's Cancer Center has allowed us to post paper petitions and supports us
6. The Chief of Pediatric Oncology at Duke University Medical School has allowed us to post paper petitions and supports us

So this is real. This is happening. We have momentum. But we need your help.

Here's how you can help:

1. Sign the Cure Childhood Cancer Petition. And send the link around to all your friends and family, post on your carepage/caringbridge page (if you have a website I can provide "code" where they can sign right on your site).
2. Print and post these around at local coffee shops, wherever people gather.  They are petitions with little tear-offs listing the website address.  We have them up at Duke and TX Children's right now.  Just in the family or break room, or the bulletin board at clinic.
3. And, if are running a fund raiser like a Lemonade Stand, and you want to collect signatures on paper, here is a Paper version of the Petition. You can email them to me (or ask for a mailing address) and we will get them input. 

Remember, "you get what you give". Thanks for any help you can provide.  Together we can make a difference. 

Thanks,

AJs Dad

[PRESTON'S MOM]

hello, my name is tiffany and we have two children our superhero preston(3) and our lil princess hannah(2)! when my husband nathan and i recieved the diagnose's of preston(t-cell all) on july 29 2008 our life become a bad dream!!! when we arrived at the hospital his counts were in the millions, they told me that i would be lucky to hold my lil boy for 24 hrs at the most, i droped to my knees and just started to scream and cry!!! i prayed and prayed that night, i knew that my lil man wasn't ready to leave just yet, the minutes seemed like hours and the hours seemed like days but morning came and then night and he was responding to the lukophrosis(not sure how to spell that) and hes counts were going down slowly but going down! we spent 6 days in the picu and did 5 rounds of the lukophrosis lasting from 2 to 5 hrs each time!! hes treatment plan is about 4 years long, seems like forever to me but i know that it wont be forever!! so everyday is a new day and everyday we learn a little bit more about this new life that we have to live!! he has just stolen my heart time and time again by being so strong and so brave, he truly is our lil superhero!!

[Basi]

Hi everybody,
I'm Basi and my daughter is Kate. Basi is short for Basilisa, which is a mouthful even for me. It's pronounced like "bossy", which I am, so it's okay. We live in South Fla. and have two girls, Belen who is 7 (going on 15) and Kate, 4. Kate is a sweet little monkey. Kate was diagnosed Dec. of 2005 with an optic/hypothalamic glioma. Her tumor is considered benign, but it is inoperable b/c it's wrapped around the carotic artery, as well as the optic chiasm. She has had 6 brain surgeries due to issues. She's been on three different chemotherapies in these 2+ years. We also had radiation this past summer at St. Jude. We were hoping that we could post-pone that step, but most doctors were in agreement that we had done as much surgery and chemo as we could. We are thankful that Kate is doing well today. She's about two months post radiation. Her MRI last week showed a tumor that is responding well to the radiation, showing shrinkage for the first time ever!!

We certainly have our share of issues and will probably have more post-treatment, as many of you already know and have experienced, but we're happy to be done with treatment and are hopeful that Kate will continue to be strong and give us the strength to keep going.

I hope to get to know you through this forum. Thanks Anissa, aka Wonder Woman, for creating this. (You rock!) Are you sure you don't have a clone of yourself. I don't know how you do it.

basi,
belen and kate's mom