|
|
|
|
Lifestyles Magazine Article By Sharon Boeckle
When parents plan for a child’s future, they take into consideration every exciting, anticipated event to come: clothing and supplies for school, fees for music lessons and sports, savings and preparation for college, and, of course, adequate medical coverage for the bumps, scrapes, and occasional broken bones that occur as the years roll along.
Despite all this planning, parents never anticipate a medical crisis so serious as to threaten life itself, the type of crisis that occurs when a precious child is diagnosed with cancer.
Thousands of children are at this moment suffering from cancer, leukemia, aplastic anemia, and other such life-threatening diseases. Their best hope for survival is a transplant of healthy marrow or blood stem cells donated from a volunteer matching donor. Despite the fact that this may be the only life saving treatment available, the costs for lab testing to find such compatible donors are never covered by insurance.
In 1992, Margaret Guedes, whose precious son John died at the age of nine from Leukemia, founded Kids Beating Cancer (KBC), an organization that embraces the challenges of families facing this crisis. With its goals of improving the quality of life and providing the interventions necessary to sustain and enhance life for critically and chronically ill children with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses, Kids Beating Cancer commits to seeing that those children whose survival depends on finding a compatible bone marrow or blood stem cell donor have the maximum opportunity for a cure. “Our vision is for all children to have equal access to the treatment of choice that will give them a second chance at life”, said Margaret Guedes.
Think it can’t make a difference? It can. Breanne was just fifteen years old when she was diagnosed with T-Cell Lymphoma and Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia. Her life quickly spiraled from one focused on athletic events, algebra tests, and prom dates to one focused on hospitalizations, painful treatments, and a prayer to survive. That prayer was answered in the form of a matching donor, one who had been recruited and typed long before Breanne was even diagnosed. Today, Breanne, as a senior in college, will contribute to the world when she soon begins her career as a social worker, helping families like her own face the challenges of a child is diagnosed with cancer.
Kids Beating Cancer’s 2nd annual Hats and Martinis for Hope gala, on Saturday, October 21, 2006, at SeaWorld’s Ports of Call, benefits these special children. The proceeds from this exciting black-tie event, featuring Master of Ceremonies Jim Payne from WESH Channel 2, Michael Andrew and his legendary eighteen piece Atomic Big Band, and specially themed martini bars provided by Southern Wine & Spirits and Miller’s Ale House, will fund the lab testing necessary to identify compatible marrow and blood stem cell donors for children in Central Florida. So, wear your signature hat, put on your dancing shoes, and be prepared to swing into the night with Sinatra, Bobby Darin and Tony Bennett as Andrews brings them back to life on stage.
The event sponsors, including Brossier Company, WLOQ Smooth Jazz 103.1, Florida Children’s Medical Group, Air Bob, Master’s Realty, and After Hours Pediatrics, understand that coming together for a night of festivities is a great way to spread the message necessary to save the lives of children at Kids Beating Cancer. Breanne’s life was saved through the love and compassion of a complete stranger who joined the marrow registry and then gave an anonymous gift of life to a child. He or she was Breanne’s cure. You can be the cure for someone else.
Come out to celebrate KBC successes like Breanne, and to raise funds to help save the lives of children like her, on October 21, 2006 at SeaWorld’s Ports of Call. Please join Kids Beating Cancer for a memorable evening and help spread the most important message of all:
You are the cure.
|
