Help Rachel fight cancer again

When someone you know or love is suffering, it has an effect on you. When someone you know is hurting, you inevitably hurt too. Whether it is a sibling, a significant other, an aunt, grandmother, parent or friend it tugs at your heart and you can’t help but to feel helpless. When your child has a cold, an ear infection or whether they fall and scrape their knee, you as the parent want to fix it. You would trade places with your hurt or sick child in a heartbeat. You would do anything and everything to protect them. You’d run to CVS at 11:00 pm in your pajamas, you’d make a homemade milkshake at 3:00 am, you’d put on a puppet show with your socks just to hear your child laugh. You’d make an utter fool of yourself to get a smile when your child feels defeated. Now imagine that your child has a life threatening disease. You’d make fifteen 3 am shakes if you knew it would take away their pain. Now imagine you have to use the word cancer in conjunction with your child’s name. No parent ever wants to utter those words nor do they want to face that beast. Now imagine your child has already been to hell and back, but has beaten their cancer only to have its ugly face rear its way back into your lives. This, unfortunately, is a reality for many, This, unfortunately, is the reality of the Ragones’ current situation.
The family of Rachel Ragone is humbly asking for your prayers and support for their beautiful Rachel. Rachel is a 20 year old cancer survivor who at the age of 16 successfully beat Ewing’s Sarcoma after a year of difficult treatment at Stony Brook Hospital. Rachel and her family are devastated and heartbroken to learn that she has recently relapsed with the disease now present in her lungs and she and her family will need to refocus their efforts on defeating this dreaded disease. Ewing’s Sarcoma is a rare pediatric cancer which affects approximately 250 per year. Rachel is a beautiful and talented young girl. At the of 16 was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma when she discovered a large lump on her arm on Super Bowl Sunday 2013. Rachel endured 12 months of inpatient chemotherapy, 31 days of radiation, 3 surgeries and countless blood transfusions. All the while, Rachel kept up with her studies and graduated 5th in her class out of 286 students at Eastport South Manor High School while keeping her amazingly positive spirit. Rachel is now a junior at Fordham University where she is majoring in Accounting and Finance. She has served as a volunteer at ‘NY Blood Services’, is a committee leader at Fordham for ‘Colleges Against Cancer’ and as a young girl Rachel donated 11 inches of her own hair to ‘Locks of Love’ on 3 separate occasions in 2005, 2007 and 2009. Only a few short years later, Rachel was being sized for a wig of her own as she lost her hair due to these treatments.
The family thanks you from the bottom of their hearts for your prayers and support. They have been on this roller coaster once already. It was a bumpy ride with twists and turns. They were elated to finally come to a halt. This coaster has once again come to pick up Rachel. We are hoping that with the love and support of their family and friends, you will all ride this coaster again with Rachel. She is going to need your love, positive energy, thoughts, prayers and support. We know that this roller coaster ride is going to be a scary one. We thank you for not just standing by and watching, but for jumping on with the Ragones and helping them put this nightmare behind them once and for all. Please help support this beautiful family by donating whatever you can to help them. The family is currently deciding whether to go to Sloan Kettering Cancer Center or to the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Any donation you can give is appreciated and no donation is too small as the financial burden this family is going to face is a scary ride in itself. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts in helping Rachel defeat this beast (again).