Hana's Story

Hana is a very pleasant little girl! Her outgoing personality and smile lights up the room. Her ability to brighten up our day with her laughter and affection is nothing short of a blessing. She is the 3rd born of my 4 girls.

While on summer break with Grandma in Rochester MN, Hana started to belly dance for mom and granny, mom noticed she had some sort of a mass protruding from the right side of her abdomen. Mom felt the mass with her hand and it was unusually hard and prominent. The very same day, she was taken to the local clinic just to make sure there were no major concerns.

The doctor at the local clinic examined her and requested an ultrasound. The results came back, however they asked if they could review the ultrasound with the radiologist and that they would give us a call the following morning.

The call came in the following morning, however it was not to discuss the result, instead, it was an appointment with one of the Physicians. You hear stories of people going through testing and getting a call to see the doctor, and the end result is almost always not good news. We were still hopeful and made it to the doctor’s office, palms sweating, and full of anxiety.

After short procedural questions with the staff, the doctor shared his diagnosis with mom. He uttered the words you never wish to hear “your child has cancer”, he went on to say “she has a rare form of kidney cancer called Wilms Tumor”. After a period of mind, body and spirit numbing day or two, our energy turned to what we can/needed to do to give her every ounce of support, love and care.

She was quickly scheduled to see the Pediatric Oncologist and a Urology surgeon at Mayo Clinic to assess and start her treatment journey. We’re grateful that she had access to world class care and remarkable human beings - who care and take pride in what they do. Her Kidney along with the tumor were successfuly removed on July 30th 2014 and she is currently undergoing chemo treatment.

We’re fortunate to have wonderful friends, family and colleagues – who have shown tremendous love and support to us during this difficult time. It is at their request, that we reluctantly decided to start this page for Hana. We’re very private people and we’re hesitant to be the center of attention. But their persistent request and the mounting expenses have led us to start this forum for helping Hana with her medical expense.

Whatever the outcome, we’re grateful and are humbled by every experience we encounter in life. Because of our limitations as humans, we’re not able to explain everything, but we can almost always choose how we respond and react – we made a conscious decision to remain positive and have faith that things will work out.

Love –

Hana and Family



A day after ICU, she insisted on spending time at the Hospital’s courtyard. She loves the outdoors.