Emily was first diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia -- a particularly aggressive strain – in the Fall of 1998 when she was five years old. She underwent several bouts of chemotherapy and radiation, to beat the cancer into remission. It has returned threetimes, when Emily was nine, thirteen, and again at sixteen. In December of 2008 at age thirteen, Emily underwent a bone marrowtransplant, which is an aggressive and risky treatment used to fight the cancer. She and her family were hopeful that this would rid her body of the cancer.
This past April at age sixteen, Emily was having trouble with her eyes. After testing and analysis, her doctors determined that the cancer was indeed back. So with the support from her family and friends she is once again engaged in a battle with this aggressive disease.
Emily’s Motto is “Always look at the positive”, So when her beautiful brown hair fell out during chemotherapy, Emily focused on something else.
"I always got to wear hats in school when nobody else did," she said with a smile.
With all the complications, and the process of battling this disease it has left the family with expenses that continue to grow. "Every time we go to the hospital, there are about five different people that we have to pay bills to," her Father Mark said. Health insurance covers much of the costs, but there are still multiple co-pays each time and medications that cost hundreds of dollars a month, the time away from work, the travel expenses associated with driving back and forth to and from Salt lake, the baby- sitters and many other expenses that are not covered by insurance. A family friend and neighbor, Dr. Steve Berry has said, “Emily's case could easily run up costs of $1 million or more. Leukemia is extremely expensive to fight, and she's had it four times." This is whatthis charity event is about, trying to help them out with these expenses.
Emily has inspired many with her determination and positive attitude. Her younger cousins Shaylee Rex (age eleven) came up with the idea to have a fundraiser for Emily. Shaylee has watched Emily fight this disease and has seen the many miracles that have happened to make it so Emily could be part of her life. She loves her cousin dearly and looks up to her. Shaylee cried the day she found out that the bone marrow transplant did not get rid of the cancer. That week she put a note on the back of her bedroom door that said “Raise $500 to help Emily.” Shaylee persistently asked her mother to help her with this. With some brain storming, we came up with the idea of a 5K run/walk to help raise money and awareness for Emily’s battle with leukemia. We approached the Orem High school student Council to see if they would help us with this event The High school was very excited to help support this event as many of the students know Emily well and have been a support to her over her years fighting leukemia.
Our hope is to help raise funds and awareness so that Emily can receive the best medical help possible, which she needs and to help support her family with the financial stresses associated with it so that they can just stay focused on taking care of Emily.
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