March 20, 2014 will forever be a day etched in my memory and was the day my family’s life changed forever. Within 24 hours our 2 year-old son went from having a high-grade fever virus to a life changing diagnosis of Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia-B Cell (B lymphocytes). I felt like the world was ending. We were immediately introduced to our “new normal”, enrolling Hunter into the Children Oncology Group Study and consenting doctors to introduce numerous toxic chemo drugs into his tiny, fragile body. It was only a few days prior that we were waiting to sign papers to enroll him into pre-school and now we were signing away our child’s life into the hands of oncologists. To say the last almost two years have been a whirlwind that includes many ups and downs would be a huge understatement. I can remember staring at my son, my little baby boy and literally wondering if this person I made would even live to see his third birthday. I’m happy to say that our now 4 year old son, Hunter is more than halfway through his 3rd and last phase of treatment (the Maintenance phase). Despite progressing along as we have hoped, his fight is still not over. To think that Hunter has been taking daily chemo treatments for almost half his life is mind-blowing. So we approach this year with the same sense of urgency to help find a cure for blood cancers and to create more effective less toxic treatments for children and adults like Hunter. No one could have ever prepared us for what is now our “new normal” but with your help we are one step closer to a cure. The work the Leukemia and Lymphoma society is doing is important work – the research is helping families like ours have a fighting chance. If it were not for these amazing oncologists, cutting edge research and life changing treatments we would have been told a very different prognosis. We are so grateful to be given the opportunity to have hope and to fight this battle. We want to do everything in our power to ensure our baby boy makes a full recovery while finding better, less toxic yet effective cures for our Hunter and children and adults like him. Thank you for supporting me and the more than 300,000 kids worldwide who will be diagnosed with cancer this year. By sharing the gifts of your time, talent and money with the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, you're supporting research to give all kids with cancer a better chance for a cure. Our families, as well as Eric, Hunter, Reid, Ollie and myself cannot begin to thank everyone enough for their outpouring of love, support and prayers. We are so touched and overwhelmed by your acts of kindness. Without you we would not have the strength to fight this battle and the courage to embrace this journey to cure our Hunter and children and adults like him suffering from this horrible disease. #HuntieStrong Thank you! Steph (Huntie's Mommy) PLEASE WATCH THE VIDEO CLIP BELOW OF A YEAR IN HUNTER'S FIGHT AND STILL GOING HUNTIE STRONG! http://flipagram.com/f/ShpZINWa4P