Who Cares - Childhood Cancer Awareness

Each year in the United States, approximately13,500 children and adolescents 18 and underare diagnosed with cancer, that’s more than a classroom of kids a day.More than 40,000 children undergo treatment for cancer each year! Children who go to school with your children.Children who play with your children on the playground. Children who are a part of families who shop at the same grocery stores as do you, driving alongside you on the highways, dreaming the same American dreams that you dream….and unless perhaps the child has no hair, you likely have no idea!


One of those children is my child. On May 31, 2012 Maddy fell ill and was hospitalized at the age of three. On June 5, 2012 Maddy’s family received the devastating news that she was officially diagnosed with Stage IV Childhood Cancer; High Risk Neuroblastoma. She had cancer in her shoulders, her hips, her legs, her lower spine, her bones and bone marrow and an abdominal tumor the size of a small melon which was initially inoperable as it was wrapped around major organs and arteries and had her right kidney pressed down on her right leg. She could not walk. She was given only a 30% chance at survival.

In the last 40 years, the overall survival rate for children's cancer has increased from 10% to more than 80%, but for many more rare childhood cancers, the survival rate is much less. So…………..Who Cares?





Well, I CARE! And in an effort to get up and do something about this, reclaim some of the power that this ugly disease has stolen from my family, and due to an indescribable yearning and desire for my child Madison and ALL children to be cured of cancer, I partnered with a local photography team with a national platform, Eunique Jones Photography, to send this message to the public! In 2013, Ireached out to Eunique to propose a campaign to raise awareness about Childhood Cancer. Through that conversation, Eunique selected Maddy to pose as her mini Robin Roberts in her “Because of Them, We Can…” campaign and we have been collaborating ever since.

Nearly two years later; after enduring countless hospitalizations between three hospitals in Virginia, DC and Pennsylvania, nine cycles of chemotherapy, MIBG radiation therapy, oncology radiation therapy, numerous surgeries including the resection of the tumor, a stem cell and marrow transplant, and lastly antibody therapy; in March 2014 Maddy was finally declaredCANCER FREE!

But many more children continue to fight! So I joined forces with Maddy's non-profit team, The Maddy Wagon and we continue to fight with them through this campaign!

This booster is dedicated to one of those little fighters,MissLauryn Kelly, Madison "Maddy" Garrett's 7 year oldpaternal cousin, who was recently diagnosed with the same exact rare form ofpediatric cancer that Madison recently beat; High Risk Neuroblastoma! The Garrett family and Team Maddy Wagon know all too well the toll this diagnosis has taken on the family and the kinds of support they will need to fight this battle! I know too wellthe burdens on her mother's heart, I know too well what this child will have to endure,we know we have to help!





Join us, to show Maddy, Lauryn and all of the children like these beautiful girls that YOU CARE!

To follow the Maddy Wagon, please like Maddy'sFacebookpage.