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. Alicia was diagnosed with cancer when she was 3 years old. We thought she simply had an ear infection, which was causing the high fevers. She took 5 days of antibiotics, but when the fevers continued to get worse, we took her back into the Pediatrician and blood work was ordered. No one would have ever expected the call we would receive a few hours later. The call that changed all of our lives and the words that will never go away, "I'm sorry to tell you this, but all of the blood work results look to be showing that Alicia has Leukemia. There is a bed waiting for her at the hospital and you need to take her in immediately". From there the nightmare and flood of emotions began. Confusion, fear, anger, questions....so many questions. Alicia had a very hard time those first 21 days in hospital isolation, requiring countless blood and platelet transfusions just to try and get her system back on track. It was very scary and impossible to explain how hard it was seeing our baby go through this. But, she got through it! She's amazing...she's our hero...she's strong and an inspiration. Since those scary days in the beginning, Alicia has gone through over 18 months of chemo therapy and steroid treatment. She's had many ups and downs, but through it all she smiles and she fights on and she very rarely complains. She missed out on a lot in those early months. Rather than playing at parks and going to preschool, she was confined to her home or at the hospital. But, she's doing well. She's in Maintenance treatment now, which means she's strong enough to go back to school and be with her friends again. She started Kindergarten with her twin sister, and she's on her first soccer team! Thanks to research and support for childhood cancer, treatment for this disease can continue to improve and help our kids get better faster and hopefully find a cure soon! Thank you for reading our story.