In January 2011, our normal everyday lives of raising three healthy kids was suddenly turned upside down. Our middle 7yr old son, Petey, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). Our hearts sank with this news, but we had no time to let it sink in. Immediately, we had to gather our strength and help our son fight for his life. Timing was everything. They told us his blood counts were so low that we were lucky we brought him in when we did. Another week later would have been fatal. Everything was happening so fast. Within the first week of stepping foot into the hospital he had blood tests on day 1, blood transfusions on day 2, a bone marrow aspiration on day 3 followed by the actual diagnosis (ALL PreB), surgery to insert a port in his chest on day 4 and his first of many chemo treatments into his cerebral spinal fluid on day 5. We had to stay in the hospital for the full month of January undergoing the beginning of his 4 years of chemotherapy treatments. Pete's dad was an FDNY Lieutenant in Brooklyn. The FDNY was compassionate enough to transfer him to Engine 251, the firehouse closest to the Long Island Jewish Cohens Children's Hospital. Petey, over the course of three years, was an inpatient for approximately 300 days. Some of those days fell on his birthday's and holidays. Needless to say, that took a huge toll on him, his siblings and family members. During that time, Petey missed a majority of second, third, fourth and fifth grade. Today, Petey is graduating from the 8th grade at Our Lady of Hope Catholic Academy. Petey was accepted and will attend Cathedral Preparatory High School in September 2017. He has aspirations of becoming a famous chef one day. Today, I am thrilled to say that Peter is done with his treatments and pills. He still gets checkups every three months where his blood work is looked at closely by two doctors. We're elated to say that on March 14th he will officially be deemed a Survivor. We pray he will continue to lead a cancer free life. We are extremely happy and proud of 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.