Lacey Holsworth dies from cancer

This was a gut shot. I knew it was coming and it still blind-sided me when I heard about it this morning from my wife. 

As a MSU Spartan alumnus I’ve been following the story of the friendship between basketball player Adreian Payne and Lacey Holsworth, an eight year old girl who just died this morning from neuroblastoma. Here’s a link to the story in the Lansing State Journal: http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20140409/NEWS01/304090010/Report-Lacey-Holsworth-8-friend-Michigan-State-basketball-program-dies

"Princess Lacey has achieved the ultimate victory," reads a post from her official Twitter account. "She now dances among angels."

According to the story written by Joe Rexrode of Gannett Michigan, “Holsworth met Payne after being diagnosed with neuroblastoma and during a hospital stay two years ago, at which point the two became close and fixtures in each other's lives. She participated in the Spartans' Senior Day activities last month and was in Dallas at the Final Four with Payne just last week. She watched him finish third in the slam dunk contest.”

I just get depressed reading these kid cancer stories. Here’s a great young kid who’s only 8 and she has her life snatched away from her by a terrible, unforgiving, wicked disease.

Rexrode’s story includes this from Dick Vitale, “I can’t believe it,” Vitale said of Lacey’s death in a phone interview before sobbing for several seconds. “This rips my heart out, man.”

It rips mine out, too.

I only have one response to shit like this. I logged onto the CERN Foundation and bought a butterfly as part of a fund raiser to help find a cure for Ependymoma – the most common form of childhood brain tumors. https://cern-foundation.org/

John

PS - Be sure to read Rexrode's entire story which also includes some poignant videos.

PPS - I know that MSU and Payne lost to UConn in the NCAA tourney and he lost his little friend, Lacey, but he's a winner in my book. 

Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, Ependymoma & Alexa

September is Childhood Awareness Month. It’s something that I wish we didn’t have to be aware of, but is something we absolutely need to be aware of.

For starters, I Googled “Childhood Awareness Month” and learned from the American Childhood Cancer Organization that, “In the U.S., almost 13,000 children under the age of 21 are diagnosed with cancer every year; approximately 1/4 of them will not survive the disease.”

Ouch.

I was in my fifties when I learned that I had cancer (melanoma) and, some years later, a brain tumor (meningioma).  By that time I was able to have a normal childhood, go to college, get married, have children and enjoy a career.

Cancers like Ependymoma don’t give kids a chance to be kids, let alone do any of that other stuff. It forces them to think about their mortality and their limitations, instead of giving them a blank slate on which to write the stories of their dreams.

I visited the CERN (Collaborative Ependymoma Research Network) Foundation site and read some patient and caregiver stories. The three I read were ” Mother Diagnosed Never Gives Up,” “Zsila Overcomes Ependymoma and Gives Back,” and “Foundation Formed to Honor The Life of Alexa Rederer.” I liked these stories because not only were they heart-felt and honest, but because they also provided a real insight into what happens to Ependymoma victims. If you’re the type who gets emotional involved in reading life stories like this, be sure to have a box of tissues handy. Here’s the link: http://www.cern-foundation.org/Content.aspx?id=528

If you are moved by these stories, you might want to contribute to the CERN Foundation as their mission in life is to “…develop treatments for ependymoma thereby improving the outcomes & care of patients and ultimately leading to a cure.” You can do that here: http://www.cern-foundation.org/Content.aspx?id=1006 

If you aren’t moved by these stories, check your pulse…because you might not have one.

John

PS – If you only read one of these, read about Alexa.