Luke
Our son, Luke, was diagnosed with stage 4 high risk neuroblastoma in October 2018 at only 22 months old. He is the baby of our three children, with two older sisters who love and dote on him. We lived a normal (and now we realize carefree) life until he started to get sick. Our world was shattered, and we felt that all our joy in this world was gone. Then, our doctors gave us hope and we embarked on a clinical trial for his initial treatment. He finished that trial in November 2019 and was off treatment for a short 4 months before the neuroblastoma returned. We once again felt hopeless but made the decision to then have him treated at Memorial Sloan Kettering in NYC. Twice again, the physicians there were able to put Luke back into remission, and now almost 3 years later, Luke is still in treatment to hopefully keep him clear.
Luke has been on multiple clinical trials, which would not be made possible without the support of organizations like Band of Parents. In addition, when the COVID pandemic happened and housing became difficult, Band of Parents came through and subsidized housing for us and other families who were in NYC for treatment. Because of this, the people around us realized how special Band of Parents is and my co-workers wanted to show their own thanks by buying and wearing the “Love our Warriors” shirts. It’s an example of how just small acts and donations can go a long way.
Today, Luke is a happy 4-year-old who loves to go to the playground, swim, play with remote control cars, Legos, and Play-Doh, and just be around his family. Every day he asks if he can go to school one day with his big sisters. He does have days where he feels tired and unwell because he still is in treatment, but he is alive and with us. We desperately need to continue to fund research and clinical trials because we need to raise the survival rate of this horrible disease and find less-toxic treatments.
With your help, Band of Parents will continue to fund important research and clinical trials and support families like us. If you have donated recently – thank you. If you haven’t given in a while, please consider donating today.
