Allie's Friend's Foundation

Allie Heatherly was diagnosed with retinoblastoma at age 4, received treatment and was told the tumor was dead. She is now 9 and has been living what we thought was a cancer free life. A few days before Christmas, she began having excruciating pain in her eye. Normal pressure in the eye is between 11 and 21. The pressure in her eye was measuring at 70. Unable to bring the pressure down with medication, she was diagnosed with neovascular glaucoma. The doctors thought that the pressure build up was due to all of the past debris in the eye blocking the ability of it to drain. Due to her past history of tumor in the eye, it was determined that the best course of action was to remove the eye in its entirety. Allie's right eye was removed two days before Christmas. Her pain relief was immediate, and we were able to enjoy a quiet Christmas.

Retinoblastoma is a relatively uncommon tumor of childhood that arises in the retina and accounts for about 3% of the cancers occurring in children younger than 15 years.
-- http://www.cancer.gov/

January 7th, 2016, the pathology report came back. It was not debris that had caused the pressure build up, it was the tumor. The pathology report had more sad news. Active tumor cells had been found outside of the eye as well. Additional tests were run, and the following week it was found that tumor cells were all along the optic nerve of the eye which had been removed.

Allie now has extra-ocular retinoblastoma; the non-genetic form.

In high-income countries, few patients with retinoblastoma present with extraocular disease.
-- http://www.cancer.gov/

We are asking for your help, to help Allie go West, where she can be seen by a team of specialists, who will customize a treatment protocol for her.

We anticipate treatment to take anywhere between three weeks and three months. The initial hospital out of pocket expense is $19,000. The cost of travelling, and the expenses that go along with being relocated are difficult to predict. Our best estimate at this time of the real cost of getting Allie the care she needs is $30,000 to $50,000.