Hello! We are Team Ila Jean and this is our third year with St. Baldrick's! Ila Jean passed away on April 15, 2012, just a few weeks after she attended the first St. Baldrick's event at Proctor's. This event was the "birth" of Team Ila Jean and the only team event that Ila Jean attended. Since then we have done many things to raise awareness for childhood cancer, but this event is close to our hearts and always will be.
Sadly, it wasn't hard enough to find out our daughter had cancer. It was worse to find out how little funding there was for research and treatments. We depended on that research to find new therapies for Ila Jean as her cancer was so very aggressive. Unfortunately, for Ila Jean, the trials she entered did not work for her.
The problem is there are still thousands of children out there fighting and thousands more that will be tomorrow, next week and next year. This problem isn't going away until we can get the funds needed into the research. Research not only for a cure, which we all want to see, but what is needed now is less toxic treatments for children. Right now children are getting drugs that have been used for decades and the majority of which were designed for adults, not children. So even if a child is able to become cancer free, they are not side effect free. For years to come and most likely for the rest of their lives, how ever long that life may be, they will contend with health problems.
Ila Jean needed hearing aids and most of her friends wear them now too. All from the chemotherapy they received. Another child close to our hearts beat leukemia when she was 10 years old. This past fall, at 17, she was diagnosed with heart failure from the chemo she received to kill her cancer. Luckily she was very quickly able to receive a new heart. Yes, at 17 she had to have a heart transplant. Thankfully she is recovering well with the best Christmas present one human being could give to another. Our hearts and our thanks go out to the family of the donor. Another example is a woman I met shortly after Ila was diagnosed. She was in her early twenties and survived Neuroblastoma as a baby. Thankful she is alive, she continues to survive through one health problem after another to this day, all from the chemotherapy.
There are thousands of examples I could give you. Some of our children may be surviving their cancer, but their treatments are continuing to attack them for years to come.
Please help us find better treatments. Help us find the cure! We need your donations. No amount is too big or too small. Join our team. Join a local event in your area. Raise money. Raise awareness. Save the children.