(1/6) “She came back from soccer practice one day, limping and...

(1/6) “She came back from soccer practice one day, limping and crying. And we knew something wasn’t right because Grace is tough. The doctors thought it was a pulled muscle at first but when they gave her the MRI, they could see stuff in her bones. They said it wasn’t leukemia, and we thought: ‘Thank God.’ But then they told us it was neuroblastoma. Stage four, high risk– as if stage four wasn’t bad enough, they had to add an extra label. I was so scared during our first meeting that I put a statue of the Virgin Mary on the table. I thought maybe it would protect us. The doctors started going through the treatment plan. They told us percentages but I didn’t want to listen. They might know about cancer but they didn’t know Grace. So I didn’t want to hear it. Two weeks after the diagnosis, a friend wrote Grace a really nice letter of encouragement. It basically said: ‘I had stage two cancer, and everything turned out just fine!’ Grace folded up the letter, and asked me: ‘Mom, what stage do I have?’ And I told her: ‘Four.’ And she said, ‘How many stages are there?’ I wanted so bad to say: ‘One hundred and fifty.’ But I had to tell her the truth.”

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As we learn these stories, we are holding a fundraiser to help the team at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in their fight against pediatric cancer. This money will be used to develop innovative treatments for rare pediatric cancers. This research saves lives. There are three days left. Over 31,000 people have donated so far and we’ve raised over $1.2 million. It would be amazing if we could reach 50,000 donations by the end of the series. Even if it’s a small amount, please consider donating: http://bit.ly/1TpFcdy