Snowdrop Foundation

From December 30, 2018 – January 1, 2019, I will be participating in the Snowdrop Foundation Ultra 55 Hour Race through Buffalo Run Park in Missouri City, TX.

For the 4^th year, I'm running in honor of a beautiful young girl named Karsyn Eubank.  Karsyn was diagnosed with ALL (acute lymphoblastic leukemia) on August 27, 2013.

She was diagnosed at 5, after her first day of kindergarten.  Karsyn began chemotherapy which wiped out her immune system and caused an 84 day hospital stay at Cook Children's Hospital.  She became extremely sick with brain abscesses causing her not to be able to talk or walk.

Karsyn had to take chemo every night.  Her end of treatment date was January 27, 2016.  Karsyn is now in remission.  However, you are not considered cured until 5 years after treatment, which won't happen until 2021.  Leukemia is a lot different than most cancers.  So yes the worry of relapse will never go away.  We just pray every single day that she will be healed from this beast. 

Also this year I’m running for a brave young man named Michael Scott who started having pain in his leg at the age of 19, as he was headed off for college. He didn’t want to worry his mother, so didn’t mention it until the pain got so bad he finally went to urgent care, where they discovered a tumor on his tibia.

A biopsy would initially say it was benign, but after a curettage and bone graft, the pathology report would reveal epithelioid angiosarcoma. Only one in a million get angiosarcoma. Only 4-6% have it present in the bone. It’s so rare, there’s no set protocol for treatment. Only 1 in 3 survive 5 years.

Mikey would endure 5 rounds of treatment, receive blood transfusions and a clot in his heart, likely due to the chemo. He had limb salvage surgery and ended up staying 17 days instead of the expected 4. After a short break to heal, he did more 14 rounds of chemo, followed by 6 weeks of radiation.

He’s now NED (No Evidence of Disease) after 16 months of treatment, but has close surveillance scans every 3 months and will continue to have his heart monitored the rest of his life.

He is alive and flourishing at his university, where he’s studying Biochemistry and hopes to apply to medical school.

Treating Leukemia is a marathon not a sprint.  Childhood Cancer is extremely under funded, only receiving 4% of the National Cancer Institute. These kids deserve more they are the future!

Part of my commitment is to raise funds that will go to the Snowdrop Foundation. Snowdrop Foundation provides scholarships for college bound pediatric cancer survivors, while raising awareness and funding for continued research to cure childhood cancer.

I run for those who can't. #erasekidcancer