I hate Ependymoma and I love
the CERN Foundation: http://cern-foundation.org/
Ependymoma is a rare type of
primary brain or spinal cord tumor. Primary tumors are those that start in either
the brain or spine. It is more common in children than adults (ugh) and is the third
most common pediatric brain tumor, which to my way of thinking, is horrific:
here’s a brain tumor that specializes in whacking young, innocent children.
Luckily the good folks at
the CERN Foundation are doing everything they can to help patients and
caregivers fight this relentless, wicked disease.
To better understand how
horrible Ependymoma is, I started reading the “CERN Inspiration” stories on
their website: https://cern-foundation.org/?page_id=256
I read a about Hanna - “I am nineteen years old. I will be twenty years
old in a week. Ironically enough, on April 1, 1997 (April Fools Day), when I
was just four years of age, I had a grand mal seizure in bed.” I am trying to
imagine what she felt or her parents’ felt and even though I’m neither, I just
feel sick.
But wait, it gets worse. Alexa and her parents learned about a “Large
mass” on her brain two weeks before her
third birthday. She went on to have eight (8) more brain tumors.
Shelby was age 1 when she was diagnosed with Grade
III Ependymoma. Read her entire story but I’ve copied this paragraph about her
early diagnosis because as I read it I felt like I got kicked in the stomach. “When
we arrived at the children’s hospital they immediately conducted an MRI. Once
the images came back, we met with the Pediatric Hematology/Oncology team as
well as a surgeon. The
consensus was that surgery must be performed to remove the tumor, as it was
wrapped around her basil artery, slowly suffocating her brain.”
There’s more stories: some have happy-ish
endings, some don’t have happy endings.
You Can Help: Buy a Butterfly for Ependymoma Awareness Day
I love Butterflies as a symbol for Ependymoma
victims. I love it because butterflies embody both the beauty and the fragility
of each victim. Each butterfly you buy
raises money for important research into solutions for this stupid disease. On May
5th – the CERN Foundation will have a mass release of all the butterflies
bought to help wipe out Ependymoma. My wish is that we buy so many butterflies
that they blot out the sun and help stamp out Ependymoma.
I’ve bought my butterfly. You can buy your butterfly
here: https://secure.acceptiva.com/?cst=f10f74
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