I'm shaving my head in memory of my nephew Blake Daniel Howard and in support of his family and all the other children and families experiencing life during and after childhood cancer. I hope that whatever contribution YOU and I can put forth brings awareness, a cure for childhood cancers, and long healthy lives for survivors.
In the heartbreaking words of Blake's Mom:
"...my son Blake Daniel Howard...was diagnosed with a rare form of Leukemia called JMML.
On Sept 21st, 2014 my son was diagnosed at 5 1/2 months old with Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukemia where he was admitted to the Hematology/Oncology floor at The Children's Hospital at OU Medical Center in OKC, OK. Blake spent 23 days in the PICU where he was intubated, put on dialysis and had his spleen removed. He was admitted for 123 days in the hospital, received 176 blood transfusions, and several rounds of chemo. Blake had a stem cell transplant on Dec 19th, 2014 and was able to come home on Jan 21st, 2015. We got to spend a very short month and a half at home as a united family with his 5 siblings, one of which was his twin sister, before we learned of his relapse on March 4th, 2015. He spent another 18 days in the hospital, in and out of the PICU, receiving more blood transfusions, another intensive round of chemo, and a 2nd stem cell transplant on March 23rd, all while battling a respiratory virus, Adenovirus. He ended up suffering from respiratory distress due to the virus and chemo treatments and passed away on March 26th, 2015 in his mommy and daddy's arms. He was just 2 weeks shy of his 1st Birthday.
Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukemia only accounts for 1%-2% of Leukemia cases...that's about 1 in every 1.5 million. A bone marrow transplant is the only cure with less than a 50% success rate. #teambabyblake
If you'd like to know more about his story you can follow his Facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/blakesbattlewithjmml"
Did you know that kids' cancers are different from adult cancers? It's true. And childhood cancer research is extremely underfunded. So I decided to do something about it by raising money for cures. Now I need your help! Will you make a donation? Every dollar makes a difference for the thousands of infants, children, teens, and young adults fighting childhood cancers.