Hello there,
This is Ned, Team AlexB captain and Alex's dad.
Alex finished treatment on June 1, 2018. On July 13, 2018 he had his first post-treatment MRI which resulted in Alex having a status of No Evidence of Disease, or NED, which he's been ever since!
My son is a survivor! In fact, nowadays over 80% of pediatric cancer patients survive! That's GREAT! Right?
Well, here's the dirty little secret about pediatric cancer that most people don't know about and why continued research is still so vitally important. Surviving pediatric cancer is rarely the end of the fight.
Just about a year ago I was sitting with Alex in the Valvano Day Hospital at Duke Children's during his third round of chemotherapy. VDH has ten chairs plus ten rooms. That day all twenty spots were filled with more children down the hall in pediatric hematology-oncology waiting for their turn. It was the busiest I had ever seen VDH. Alex was in his preferred chair, chair #1 all the way to the right straight ahead when you first walk into VDH. I stood up to stretch and looked around the room when it dawned on me that not all of these children will be with us in a year.
Here we are a year later. Life will never be the same again for any of those twenty children and their families. At least one of those children in that room on that day is no longer with us today. Another one or two will sadly leave us within the next few years. Of the survivors, sixteen will encounter chronic health issues by the time they are forty-five, thirteen with severe or life-threatening issues. Eleven of those sixteen will suffer after-effects long after treatment has ended. Five of those eleven, including my son, will be dealing with the after-effects every single day for the remainder of their lives.
I am so pleased that the St. Baldrick's Foundation is giving more attention and research to improved therapies that not only increase the rate of survival but also improve survivor quality of life after treatment has ended. It is my honor to be shaving my head again this year to help raise funds and awareness for St. Baldrick's important mission.
Now we need your help! Will you join us in shaving for awareness? Will you make a donation? Every dollar makes a difference for the thousands of infants, children, teens, and young adults fighting childhood cancers.
