I was reading one of my favorite blogs today - www.thecoupongoddess.blogspot.com and came across this story. If you're in the area on October 17 or 24 stop by Shaw's and pick up a baked good to help out this family. Greatly appreciated!!
Meet my friend Sarah. Isn't she beautiful? Sarah is a bubbly, precocious, super intelligent kid with a total crack up sense of humor. She's one of those kids that are wayyyyyy beyond their years in maturity which is a very good thing because my little buddy has a very rare form of cancer.
As you know, cancer is a scary horrible disease that none of us ever wants to deal with let alone with our own children. I myself have been insulated in my life from knowing anyone who has suffered with cancer until now. Now I have a front row seat to one of the worst horror shows you can imagine.
I've known Sarah's mom Cindy for a long time. We've attended the same church for over ten years and our daughters play together. When I heard Sarah's diagnosis I was stunned. I mean, here is this healthy, vibrant kid and then BOOM, she's attacked by a vicious cancer that any adult would have an impossible time coming to grips with, but she is a BABY for heaven's sake. Why her? Why this precious, sweet girl who is everything love and joy? Unfortunately, life is what it is, so Sarah and her family walked down the thorny path that they were required to travel. Here is Sarah's story told by her mom Cindy.....
Last January, the 28th to be exact, Sarah was complaining of an earache and had started to cry. I took her temp and it was 101. Now First of all, I'm not one of those mom's that flip over a fever, in fact I'm totally old school...sweat it out, no meds. For some strange reason I was set on getting her to the doctor. It was a Thursday and they happened to have evening appointments. After a long time of looking at her mouth again and again the doctor called me over to look in Sarah's mouth. I was shocked to see the large mass at the back of her tongue. He asked if I had seen it before and I replied, "No, have you?' He quickly replied, "No"! He immediately called children's hospital.
A week went by. Sarah had many more doctors appointments and tests and of course a biopsy. On Feb 8th, three days after her 5th birthday, we got the news no parent ever wants to hear. Sarah had cancer! A very rare and aggressive cancer called alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma and her chances of survival were 50/50 at best.
Well, long story short, since that time Sarah has been amazingly resilient. She has had four more operations. Her major surgery consisted of the removal of the mass on her tongue, a tracheotomy that had to be placed so she could now breathe and hopefully talk, the insertion of a G-tube so she could eat and a lymphectomy of some of her lymph nodes in her neck.
She has chemo therapy every week, every third being hospitalized because three drugs ( VAC) would be administered as opposed to only the vincristine the other two weeks. Each three week round requires 2 weeks of shots daily to build up her white blood cell count and she has also had 5 weeks of radiation every day. Her chemo ends the last week of December, at which time she will be tested gain to see if there is any cancer remaining.
I have met and watched so many other children and their families fight this battle. The kids are SO amazing. Sarah has been sooo amazing and she has such a sweet spirit as do so many of the children. Kids seem to bounce back because of their youth, yet the other side of the coin is that because their little bodies are having poison injected to kill the cancer as they are growing they often have side effects later on. One of which is secondary cancers. I was surprised to find out that childhood cancer is more aggressive than adult cancer by it's very nature.
Statistically Sarah will not be in full remission for five years due to the aggressiveness of the cancer. We are believing she will be cancer free at the end of December and will remain that way. Sarah will need to be tested every two months for a year and then they will space the tests out longer as she remains cancer free.
Here is Sarah today with my girls. Look at her smile. Can you believe that she still shines light and joy? She spent the day at the pool with my girls just doing what kids like to do..... play and laugh. It was a beautiful day.
Why am I sharing this very sad story with you? Well to be honest, I've been a bystander in this tragedy. I've felt like there is very little I could do to help this wonderful family because what the heck can you do in a situation like this? But here's the deal....... this disease has taken a severe financial toll on this family. The drives back and forth to Boston, the thousands of incidental expenses associated with treating this precious child, and supporting the other three sweet kids in her family (not to mention her husband) is wrecking havoc on their bank account.
All that said, I'm going to try to help by baking. I'm hosting a bake sale that will run two consecutive weekends and will be held at the Shaws Pilgrim Hill Road Plymouth MA store on October 17th and 24th from 9am til 2pm. I will be baking like a crazy woman and selling the baked goods to raise money for little Sarah that will hopefully offset some of the expenses they are drowning in. There are a few ways you can help......
If you could spread the word I'd be entirely thankful. Repost this to your own blog, tweet about it, Facebook it, fly a plane with a banner, I don't care. Just spread the word if you are able.
Mark the dates on your calendar if you are local. Come visit and buy a baked good. I'm a pretty good baker, odds are good that you'll find something that your belly will tell you to buy and I'd love to meet you.
If you know of a commercial baker who would like to contribute product for the bake sale, pass my email address along.... thecoupongoddessblog@yahoo.com.
If you would like to donate to the bake sale but do not live locally you can send a check made payable to The Sarah Hayes Fund and mailed to:Sovereign Bank
attn:Katie
21 Commerce Way
Plymouth MA 02360
Lastly, please keep Sarah and her family in your thoughts and prayers. My prayer is that this family will get to enjoy Sarah for many years to come and that she will beat this disease and grow up to be the fine lady that I see in her.
Thanks in advance for your support. I believe that together we can make a difference for this sweet little girl.
