Help Olive Beat Stage 4 High Risk Neuroblastoma

Olive’s Marathon to Beat Stage 4 High Risk Neuroblastoma

A few weeks ago, family and friends gathered around Olive for her “Wizard of Oz” themed birthday party. Olive loves sparkly dresses and high heels and naturally insisted on being Glinda for her party. She wore a beautiful sparkly pink dress (with a costume change before cake) and had a wonderful day with her family and friends, all dressed in theme. Olive’s parents, Brooke and Vinnie, went as Dorothy and the Scarecrow. After quite the celebration in Emerald City, they returned to the emergency room to follow up about a concerning and persistent bump on Olive’s head, the cause of which had not been determined in previous trips to the doctors. Just a few days after her third birthday celebration, it was confirmed that the bump on her head is a cancerous tumor. It was also discovered that she had a melon-sized tumor in her abdomen, pressing on the spinal vertebrae and affecting the bone marrow. Her family and friends gathered around her again, but this time to receive the devastating diagnosis of Stage 4 High Risk Neuroblastoma.

This type of cancer is almost exclusively diagnosed during early childhood. Olive quickly began chemotherapy which will occur every three weeks, and by the 5th cycle doctors will determine how much the tumors have shrunk. When small enough, the abdominal mass will be removed surgically while the head tumor is expected to fully dissipate with chemotherapy alone. Following that surgery, Olive will need radiation therapy and most likely a bone marrow transplant using her own stem cells. The last phase of Olive’s treatment will require an antibody that specifically targets neuroblastoma cells and “mops up” anything that might be remaining.

Olive, Brooke, Vinnie, and their families are looking at a year and a half long journey to recovery. With this healing journey, lives have been put on hold in order to fully support Olive during her treatment. This diagnosis immediately followed an absolute twister of events with the completion of Brooke’s Masters thesis and the family having to move out of campus housing. We’re raising money in order to afford the many anticipated expenses for their family, such as hospital bills, rent, nourishing foods to keep Olive as healthy as possible, salary loss, and the miscellaneous costs that will add up over this next year and a half.

Olive is an incredibly joyful and smart little girl. She has been raised by the best people we have the honor of knowing who are lining up to share this battle with Olive. This is the beginning of a marathon but we know Olive is going to follow the yellow brick road and ring that bell! Thank you for supporting our family during this challenging time. We appreciate all donations and prayers sent their way to support the journey ahead.