Help Lexi Shaw fight Cancer!
Donation protected
My very dear friend John Shaw, and his family are facing a battle no family should ever have to. In early June, John's 14 year old daughter Lexi was brave enough and courageous enough to let her mom Debbie and dad know she saw some blood in her urine. As any parent knows this is not something most 14 year olds would ever want to talk about with their parents. The fact that Lexi felt close enough to her parents to discuss this right away is a testament to who she really is, and what type of family the Shaw's are. Her brave decision to be open and honest most likely saved her life as the bleeding stopped soon thereafter.
The family immediately acted and were told that there was a large mass on her kidney, but not to worry because even if it was cancerous it was encapsulated. The tumor showed no blood flow, and the doctors would remove part or all of the kidney requiring no further treatments. On the day of the surgery the team of doctors made the decision to only remove a portion of the kidney, and after a quick biopsy declared it appeared to be Wilms cancer. This was an odd prognosis at best because it generally only appears in young children. Although not the news they anticipated, she came through surgery fairly well other than the normal pain after surgery. They would have to wait for the final pathology report. After a week of waiting, the report finally came in and the news was not good. Lexi had a fairly rare form of kidney cancer known as Ewings Sarcoma. Only 100 or so cases are reported per year, and this type of cancer typically never occurs in the kidneys. The doctors made the comment that she would be in the medical books! I'm sure we can all agree no parent should ever have to hear any of those words. They needed to act fast. This required, pet scans, more surgery, selecting an oncologist, limiting health insurance with ridiculous co-pays. The surgery required them going back in, and remove what was left of the kidney. This was another 3 hour surgery. A port was placed in her chest to begin Chemo treatments which required an additional 90 minutes. Two surgeries in 2 weeks. Lexi will require 10 months of chemotherapy, and will miss her entire sophomore year of high school. If this wasn't devastating enough, she had an amazing summer planned with her first job, a family vacation, and now that is all gone. As you can imagine this has devastated her on so many levels. On top of this, brave Lexi and her family had to think about her ability to have children. The Doctors advised them that the only way to be ensure her chance of having children, would be to harvest her eggs. This would require 2 weeks of daily hormone injections into her stomach by her parents before they take her eggs on July 9. These injections are painful and scary to an adult, imagine being a child. She will have to begin her chemo treatments within a day or two after that. This is also not covered by insurance and will require expensive storage fees until the appropriate time comes.
Because of these circumstances, one parent will be required to be home with Lexi at all times. This will require Debbie to leave her job after already having been out most of the month. John as a wedding photographer and videographer has been unable to shoot because of the vast amount of doctors appointments and surgeries in his busiest time of the year. He will not be returning to active shooting until the end of July at the earliest.
Between large copays, the cost of harvesting her eggs and large amounts of lost income, this family is already in financial crisis after just a few weeks. Some of her medical expenses are not covered and with the everyday necessities of life, money is getting tighter and tighter. They also have another beautiful daughter, Kristina who they are putting through college as she enters her sophomore year .
John has been one of my dearest, and closest friends for over 25 years. He has been involved in the wedding business for over 40 years in one form or another. He originally started as a dishwasher at a catering hall making it up to the title of general manager until he joined us at Patken as the general manager almost 19 years ago. His entire life has been spent making others special days perfect. He has documented well over 1500 weddings during that time. He has created an ever lasting lifetime of memories for people. His love of his family, has had to make him sacrifice time to support them, and has caused him to miss many normal weekend family events. John and his wife Debbie are two of the strongest, most selfless people I have ever known. They have always been there to give their love and support or the shirt off their back to anyone that needs it. Their beautiful daughters are not only amazing students, but incredible athletes and even better people. The family's selflessness is unparallelled,. When I mentioned to them I wanted to do this , it was a challenge to even convince them to allow me to create this page. With everything going on with their family it still doesn't stop them from asking about your family.
Now, it's time that we send back some of that love, and support to Lexi and the Shaw's. Anything you can donate will be truly appreciated. Everything we can do to help and surround Lexi and her family with love is what is most important so she can focus on beating this thing. Please spread the word. No child should ever have to deal with this. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
#lexistrong #cancersucks #fcancer
The family immediately acted and were told that there was a large mass on her kidney, but not to worry because even if it was cancerous it was encapsulated. The tumor showed no blood flow, and the doctors would remove part or all of the kidney requiring no further treatments. On the day of the surgery the team of doctors made the decision to only remove a portion of the kidney, and after a quick biopsy declared it appeared to be Wilms cancer. This was an odd prognosis at best because it generally only appears in young children. Although not the news they anticipated, she came through surgery fairly well other than the normal pain after surgery. They would have to wait for the final pathology report. After a week of waiting, the report finally came in and the news was not good. Lexi had a fairly rare form of kidney cancer known as Ewings Sarcoma. Only 100 or so cases are reported per year, and this type of cancer typically never occurs in the kidneys. The doctors made the comment that she would be in the medical books! I'm sure we can all agree no parent should ever have to hear any of those words. They needed to act fast. This required, pet scans, more surgery, selecting an oncologist, limiting health insurance with ridiculous co-pays. The surgery required them going back in, and remove what was left of the kidney. This was another 3 hour surgery. A port was placed in her chest to begin Chemo treatments which required an additional 90 minutes. Two surgeries in 2 weeks. Lexi will require 10 months of chemotherapy, and will miss her entire sophomore year of high school. If this wasn't devastating enough, she had an amazing summer planned with her first job, a family vacation, and now that is all gone. As you can imagine this has devastated her on so many levels. On top of this, brave Lexi and her family had to think about her ability to have children. The Doctors advised them that the only way to be ensure her chance of having children, would be to harvest her eggs. This would require 2 weeks of daily hormone injections into her stomach by her parents before they take her eggs on July 9. These injections are painful and scary to an adult, imagine being a child. She will have to begin her chemo treatments within a day or two after that. This is also not covered by insurance and will require expensive storage fees until the appropriate time comes.
Because of these circumstances, one parent will be required to be home with Lexi at all times. This will require Debbie to leave her job after already having been out most of the month. John as a wedding photographer and videographer has been unable to shoot because of the vast amount of doctors appointments and surgeries in his busiest time of the year. He will not be returning to active shooting until the end of July at the earliest.
Between large copays, the cost of harvesting her eggs and large amounts of lost income, this family is already in financial crisis after just a few weeks. Some of her medical expenses are not covered and with the everyday necessities of life, money is getting tighter and tighter. They also have another beautiful daughter, Kristina who they are putting through college as she enters her sophomore year .
John has been one of my dearest, and closest friends for over 25 years. He has been involved in the wedding business for over 40 years in one form or another. He originally started as a dishwasher at a catering hall making it up to the title of general manager until he joined us at Patken as the general manager almost 19 years ago. His entire life has been spent making others special days perfect. He has documented well over 1500 weddings during that time. He has created an ever lasting lifetime of memories for people. His love of his family, has had to make him sacrifice time to support them, and has caused him to miss many normal weekend family events. John and his wife Debbie are two of the strongest, most selfless people I have ever known. They have always been there to give their love and support or the shirt off their back to anyone that needs it. Their beautiful daughters are not only amazing students, but incredible athletes and even better people. The family's selflessness is unparallelled,. When I mentioned to them I wanted to do this , it was a challenge to even convince them to allow me to create this page. With everything going on with their family it still doesn't stop them from asking about your family.
Now, it's time that we send back some of that love, and support to Lexi and the Shaw's. Anything you can donate will be truly appreciated. Everything we can do to help and surround Lexi and her family with love is what is most important so she can focus on beating this thing. Please spread the word. No child should ever have to deal with this. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
#lexistrong #cancersucks #fcancer
Organizer and beneficiary
Doug Gordon
Organizer
Babylon, NY
John Shaw
Beneficiary