Light the Night Walk – Shine a light to find a cure for Cancer

When we learned of this opportunity to share this {Sponsored Post} on behalf of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and their effort to provide treatment for cancer patients (especially kids), I immediately knew that my daughter, Alex should be the one to tell her story about her best friend, Ellie. Here is a story from my 15 year old daughter, Alex.

Ellie Skees was my best friend since, well, since I can remember! I moved to Florida when I was two years old and we were immediate friends! We did crafts together A LOT! We loved playing dress up and we put on plays for our moms. My childhood memories are full of Ellie!

On September 28th, 2006 I found out that my best friend, Ellie Skees was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma Cancer. I was 7 years old when I found out. I didn’t really understand the severity of what is really going on. In those first few months, I thought Ellie was just staying at the hospital for a few days. I wasn’t scared of hospitals. I had had some surgeries in the past, so when Ellie was going through chemo, I went to her hospital room and did crafts on her hospital bed with her.

I really didn’t want to admit that my best friend was dying. But as time went on I knew something was actually wrong. We couldn’t play together as much, so instead we would Skype with each other. I remember on my 8th birthday, I sent Ellie some party favors over to her house, so that she could be a part of my birthday party. Even though Ellie started to lose her hair, It was just hard to believe Ellie was sick, because she was so strong and happy.

 One year later, on the night of Wednesday, December 19th, 2007 Ellie had passed away. The next morning, my mom took me to Dunk’n Donuts before school. I thought that I was in trouble, because I hadn’t finished my book report yet. But there was something much more to it than that. My mom didn’t want me to hear this news at school and be caught off guard, but as we sat down with our breakfast she said to me, “Alex, Ellie passed away last night.”

“What?”

That moment of disbelief had hit me again. Some people cry when they find out that someone they love has passed, but I could not. As devastated as I was, something occurred to me in that moment. I immediately remembered a dream from that night. It was an angel facing a bright light. In that moment, I just knew that the angel that I saw in my dream was Ellie.

Ellie’s cancer was Neuroblastoma, a cancer that develops from immature nerve cells found in several areas of the body. Even though it is not a blood cancer disease, Alex is passionate about finding a cure for all childhood cancer. This fall, let’s walk to the end of cancer by joining The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Light The Night Walk fundraising campaign, which brings together families and communities to honor blood cancer survivors, as well as those lost to the diseases, and to shine a light on finding cures and providing access to treatments for blood cancer patients.

Leukemia is the most common cancer in children and adolescents less than 20 years old. While extraordinary progress has been made in blood cancer treatments, the journey back to a healthy life can be a long one. For these kids, returning to school means additional challenges, including maintaining friendships to keeping up with schoolwork.

Here’s how we can do it:

This year, Sylvan Learning is partnering with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society through Light The Night, with a commitment to raise $250,000 and to donate more than 12,000 hours of free tutoring services in nearly 200 communities nationwide to help young blood cancer patients and their families with the transition back into academics. You can help them to achieve these goals:

There are nearly 200 Light the Night walks nationwide this fall. It’s easy to walk by registering and joining a team.

Click here to learn more about how LLS and Sylvan are helping young cancer patients and their families manage.

Find a walk in your area, and join a Sylvan Learning walk team in supporting this great cause.

I’m going to join Light the Night with Alex and my family on Thursday October 9, 2014 at 6:00 pm at Lake Eola, 195 N Rosalind Ave., Orlando, FL 32801. Won’t you join us? Let’s all walk to the end of cancer and, at the same time, you can help kids get back into the swing of school, often while they are still undergoing treatment.