St. Baldrick's
I know a while back (almost 2 years ago now) I mentioned that my cousin's then 3 year old daughter had just been diagnosed with Stage IV neuroblastoma cancer. He prognosis wasn't all that good - I think it was a 15% chance of survival, and there was a new treatment that could double that. She finished her treatments a few months ago and so far all of her scans show no sign of disease! So that is amazing news!! Shayla is now 5 years old and started kindergarten a few weeks ago!
My cousin is a single mom with 2 girls (Savannah is 10) and she lives in the mountains outside of Asheville, North Carolina. Apparently she has found a great church down there and has a great group of friends who have helped watch Savannah while her and Shayla had to go down to Chapell Hill for various treatments and who have taken care of her pets and helped out around her house. It's been really great that she's had such a great community of people down there even though most of her family is in NY. Most of the time Shayla has spent in the hospital has been at Mission Hospital and they love all the people from the hospital there. Last year, while Shayla was still sick, they had a St. Baldrick's event in Asheville and this year they are doing it again. St. Baldrick's raises money for childhood cancer research while shaving people's heads. Here's are two great slideshows:
This one is primarily just my cousin and her girls and shows a lot of Shayla's treatments at Mission Hospital - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETfJPOyT9k4&feature=youtube_gdata_player
This one is all pictures from the St. Baldrick's event last year - http://www.woodwardandrick.net/stbaldricks3_showit/
This year most of my family is heading down to the event and my dad and 2 uncles are getting their heads shaved. My uncles don't have a ton of hair to lose, but my dad on the other hand has a big ol' head of hair. He's been growing it out since February or March. He's generally a bit slow to get his hair cut anyway and I'm pretty sure he decided not to cut it just to annoy my mom. That and/or he seriously wanted to grow a ponytail after all this time. My dad actually has a pretty amazing head of hair - quite Clinton-esque when properly cut, yet a bit creepy when he was slicking it back earlier this year. Luckily now he's going with wild old man surfer hair look. But it actually works out pretty well because it'll make his shaving more impressive. So that's where most of my family will be this weekend. I'm still up in the air about going. I have to be in Boston on Friday, so my only option would be to fly down Saturday morning and then fly to NJ on Sunday. At this point I'm saving that decision until Friday night.
If anyone is interested in making a donation to St. Baldrick's for Team Shayla, here is a link to my Dad's fundraising website - http://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/mypage/participantid/410699
For those of you who know my dad, the picture won't really be a surprise. For those of you who don't my dad, ha, that's just the beginning! :o) Oh yeah, and my brother is getting married a month from tomorrow - should make for interesting wedding pictures - I've never seen my dad with anything close to a shaved head.
My cousin is a single mom with 2 girls (Savannah is 10) and she lives in the mountains outside of Asheville, North Carolina. Apparently she has found a great church down there and has a great group of friends who have helped watch Savannah while her and Shayla had to go down to Chapell Hill for various treatments and who have taken care of her pets and helped out around her house. It's been really great that she's had such a great community of people down there even though most of her family is in NY. Most of the time Shayla has spent in the hospital has been at Mission Hospital and they love all the people from the hospital there. Last year, while Shayla was still sick, they had a St. Baldrick's event in Asheville and this year they are doing it again. St. Baldrick's raises money for childhood cancer research while shaving people's heads. Here's are two great slideshows:
This one is primarily just my cousin and her girls and shows a lot of Shayla's treatments at Mission Hospital - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETfJPOyT9k4&feature=youtube_gdata_player
This one is all pictures from the St. Baldrick's event last year - http://www.woodwardandrick.net/stbaldricks3_showit/
This year most of my family is heading down to the event and my dad and 2 uncles are getting their heads shaved. My uncles don't have a ton of hair to lose, but my dad on the other hand has a big ol' head of hair. He's been growing it out since February or March. He's generally a bit slow to get his hair cut anyway and I'm pretty sure he decided not to cut it just to annoy my mom. That and/or he seriously wanted to grow a ponytail after all this time. My dad actually has a pretty amazing head of hair - quite Clinton-esque when properly cut, yet a bit creepy when he was slicking it back earlier this year. Luckily now he's going with wild old man surfer hair look. But it actually works out pretty well because it'll make his shaving more impressive. So that's where most of my family will be this weekend. I'm still up in the air about going. I have to be in Boston on Friday, so my only option would be to fly down Saturday morning and then fly to NJ on Sunday. At this point I'm saving that decision until Friday night.
If anyone is interested in making a donation to St. Baldrick's for Team Shayla, here is a link to my Dad's fundraising website - http://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/mypage/participantid/410699
For those of you who know my dad, the picture won't really be a surprise. For those of you who don't my dad, ha, that's just the beginning! :o) Oh yeah, and my brother is getting married a month from tomorrow - should make for interesting wedding pictures - I've never seen my dad with anything close to a shaved head.