Thank you for visiting my fundraising page!
This year I am running the Vermont City Marathon as part of a team to raise awareness of the aggressive childhood cancer Neuroblastoma. This cancer breaks the hearts of children and their families. It lurks around the body, rearing its ugly tumors in a child’s bone marrow, abdomen, bones, or brain. It hides, it waits (sometimes for 13 years), it progresses at will and makes every affected family feel like a ticking time bomb.
So, why am I running? Well, inspiration... I am inspired beyond words by the parents who are tackling not only the daily life of raising children through all the emotional stages that exists from birth and beyond (is there life after the terrible 2's, 3's, or 5's?) but are also navigating the complex world of healthcare, Medicaid, chemotherapy, nuclear radiology, side effects, experimental clinical trials, and teaching their children how to ride a bike while they’re living with Neuroblastoma. I am inspired by my co-workers who work beyond the doors of their employing institution reading, questioning, and researching into the why and how these cancer cells are growing and replicating and taking dreams away from entire family units. I am inspired by the national group of clinicians who have embraced the challenge of working on the underfunded "orphan" (or you could say not politically high-profile) disease of neuroblastoma.
So, you remember those parents I briefly mentioned, well beyond the day and night work of caring for their cancer battling child, they have also banded together and forged a network of foundations raising money that supports the research that the federal government can't manage to allocate funds for. The National Cancer Institute invested 4.8 BILLION dollars in cancer research in 2007....yes, BILLION. Of that, 3.6% funded pediatric cancer research specifically. That is ALL pediatric cancer. That means that 4.62 BILLION went to fund adult cancer research (breast, prostate, lung, etc.) and the dregs went to help children. So, if you want to help those moms and dads, those grandparents and brothers and sisters, this is one way to help fill their buckets, drop by drop by drop.
Every day I work running clinical trials for children with neuroblastoma, jumping through the hoops of federal and institutional regulation, meeting families, meeting children, supporting the wonderful staff at our hospital… and I know we are making a difference; we are helping these kids enjoy the days they have at school and at home with their family and it is those families that are making it possible because one thing is for sure, research is not cheap and funding from the government will forever be limited. Last year the medical students at the University of Vermont College of Medicine raised over $60,000 running in the marathon and this year, our team is joining their efforts. So, if you can spare the funds, every drop helps.
Spread the word and help us continue the fight.
Thank you. Shannon
For more information about our local doctor, Dr. Giselle Sholler, Neuroblastoma, or the research we are doing right here in VT and across the country, please check out www.nballiance.org
If you want to see neuroblastoma through the eyes of a parent whose child is living with it, you HAVE to see this video. This family is a big part of why I am here and their fundraising is why we are able to do what we are doing...
http://www.willlacey.com/2009/09/what-am-i-donating-to.html