CHOC Walk

Kelly and Bailey at CHOC

A year ago last October, Kelly's tumor recurred right after she had finished radiation and a round of daily chemotherapy.  This was very bad news, and her doctors were very worried about her prognosis.  But through another surgery, gamma knife radiosurgery, plus her current chemotherapy protocol, she is doing so much better a year later they expected her to be doing.  We really credit her doctors, nurses, and CHOC (Children's Hospital of Orange County) with how well she is doing right now.  We are thankful for every good day we have with her.  

So now we feel it is time to give back to CHOC.  The 2008 CHOC / Disneyland Resort Walk in the Park is October 19th and we are looking forward to participating this year for the first time.  Last year, this event occured at the same time Kelly was preparing for her surgery for recurrent tumor, so we couldn't be part of 2007 CHOC walk, so we are very grateful that everything is going well right now and we can be part of this important fundraising event for the Hospital that has done so much for Kelly.  We are not forming our own team, as we did for Relay for Life, but have chosen to join the team of our good friends, the Spoonhowers - Bailey's family.  We would love to have anyone who is interested, join us in walking with Team SuperBay.  If you would like to be part of team SuperBay, please follow this link to sign up.

JOIN TEAM SUPERBAY

Make sure you click on SuperBay.

 Each participant needs to have at least $50. in sponsors to take part in the walk.  When you sign up, there is a prewritten email you can send out to ask people to sponsor you.  (Or you can ask any way you choose - phone calls, your own emails, telegrams, smoke signals, etc....)  

If you don't live close by, or you don't want to join the CHOC walk, we still need donations to reach our family's goal of raising at least $1,000. for CHOC.   Each member of our family needs to receive donations, so follow one of the links below to donate.  

Kathy 

Kevin

Kelly

Megan

Shannon

You can also send a check to us and we will submit it to CHOC.  Make the check out to CHOC Walk.  If you need our address, please email me at kathylaude@cox.net and I will send it to you.

I am also going to include Michelle Spoonhower's (Bailey's mom) story about why they feel so strongly about giving back and participating in the CHOC walk.  She wrote this before she got the results of Bailey's scans this week.  Two nodules were found on Bailey's lungs.  The tumor board at CHOC was meeting this afternoon to decide which direction Bailey's treatment should go now.   Prayers for Bailey and his family are much appreciated!  You can also go to his website to read more about him, and leave a message if you'd like.  You may have to create an identity and password if you have never been to Carepages before.  It's easy and worth it!

Bailey's Website

Michelle's Story~

Through out the past two and a half years (wow that is a long time) we have received so much love and support from everybody that we have been truly blessed. One of our huge blessings has been Children’s Hospital of Orange County. I could not have imagined a better hospital. Our kid’s absolutely love going to CHOC and that is because of how wonderful everybody has been to them. They have not only treated our son and kept him alive but they have been there for us as well. They have given me a shoulder to cry on when I needed one, made me laugh when I needed to laugh, answered all of our ten thousand questions and Drews never ending questions, they even rubbed my back when I was in labor, wheeled me to the big people hospital across the street, and promised me that they would take care of Bay (when I went into labor at CHOC while Bailey had a fever that would not go away). They also came to visit Addison and I at the hospital and they even brought Bailey over to visit me and let us take a nap together. There were so many situations that were not ideal but yet they were made ten times better being at CHOC. Oh and did I also mention that when our stem cell collection was denied by our insurance that CHOC picked up the bill for it. That was a biggie.
A year and a half ago when Bay relapsed we went to a Rhabdo specialist at another children’s hospital and all he talked about was hospice and Palliative care. He was just looking at Bay as a statistic and not as my son. Although our Doctor’s at CHOC were very honest with us about Bailey’s prognosis they have never given up hope on him and for that I will thank them forever.
We are so grateful that we have such a wonderful Hospital. That brings me to my next point. It is time for that time of year again for the Spoonies to give back. CHOC is having their annual CHOC walk at Disneyland Sunday October 19th. This is a time that we can thank them for everything they have done for us. Last year we started our SuperBay team and we had a huge success. My goal was a hundred walkers and we ended up with 145 and we raised over 10,000 dollars.

We had so much fun last year and I am looking forward to seeing a bunch of you again this year. It is a very fun family event and you get to walk through Disneyland and California Adventure how cool is that. So please help us out and come and have fun with the Spoonies. We would love to see and spend the day with all of you. If anything you get a SuperBay shirt.

If anyone has any questions, please feel free to contact me (its Kathy again!) Hopefully I can find an answer for you!  We'd love to have you walk with us and Team SuperBay, or donate through us and Team SuperBay.  Thanks so much!

One more thing (remember yesterday I said I had a lot to say!)  Here is a link to an article in a Boston Newspaper recognizing Childhood Cancer.  Take a minute to look at these photos that tell a lot about childhood cancer.  Sadly, I recongized some of these kids.  Please leave a comment on the article, even if is it just thanks for recognizing Childhood Cancer and raising awareness.  We need to really make an impact that this awareness is needed so cures can be found for kids like Kelly and Bailey, and so many more......

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/09/childhood_cancer_awareness_mon.html