A 9 Year Old Girl and Her Battle With Cancer

     My childhood friend, Jen, has a daughter, Brooke, who is now very good friends with our children. Brooke has been diagnosed with throat cancer and our children would like to raise money to help her and her family.      Here is alittle background; Brooke is 9 years old and had gone to the doctor because she couldn't breathe through her nose and it sounded like she had a frog in her throat when she talked. The doctor saw what appeared to be a small growth so they decided to do surgery to remove her tonsils, adnoids, and the polyp. During surgery she started to bleed very heavily so the doctor couldn't remove anything except a small piece of the polyp which he sent for testing. The tests showed that she had cancer of the throat (embryonal rhabdomyocarcoma). Two weeks later Brooke went to Johns Hopkins and had to stay there for a month with a breathing tube in place. It wasn't safe to remove the breathing tube until she had undergone a few rounds of chemo. She then was able to spend a few days at home before getting a very painful infection which called for another stay at Johns Hopkins, two weeks that time. Brooke is now home but she's still having some problems with fevers that she has to go to the local hospital for.      Her treatment calls for 28 sessions of radiation and 48 weeks of chemo. Because of the radiation treatments she has to go to Johns Hopkins daily until September 30th, then it will be weekly trips for the chemo until sometime next year.      Johns Hopkins is 124 miles roundtrip and costs around 22.00 in gas. Jen also has to pay the deductible for the insurance at that's 3000.00. Before this all happened Jen had just started going to school for massage therapy and was also working at Giant Food Stores. She has now had to stop going to work and is putting off school to take care of Brooke full time. She will not ask for help but we all know how hard it is to raise a family even with a full time job. She also has two other children that she's caring for.      We are asking for donations to help her to take care of Brooke, pay the insurance deductible, as well as help with their household expenses during this time. If you'd rather not send money, small gifts for Brooke (she likes barbies, books, animals, etc *her mother has asked that she NOT recieve any stickers, glitter, or makeup*) would also be appreciated, maybe even some cute hats since she has lost her hair due to the chemo. Get well cards would be great also. I will be accepting all the donations and delivering them to Jen and Brooke myself. Small gifts can be mailed to; Jennifer Seifert, 745 Possum Hollow Rd, East Berlin PA 17316 (please address get well cards to "Brooke Nelson"). Monetary gifts can be mailed to the same address (please enclose a note "for Brooke") or sent via paypal to [email protected] (please put "Brooke" in the memo line). Thank You for opening your heart up to this sweet child and her family. If you have any questions or concerns please email me at [email protected] . X X X